Intel is currently facing some major issues surrounding its 14th and 13th-gen desktop CPUs. There’s an instability bug on the hardware which causes it to be exposed to elevated voltages and essentially crash as a result.
The company has acknowledged the issue and last week reported that a patch would arrive in mid-August to address the problem. However, Intel has warned that if your CPU has crashed and as a result, been damaged, the patch won’t fix it. This damage is sadly permanent.
At first, this news came from an unnamed source at Intel. The person reported to Tom’s Hardware that damage done to these CPUs as a result of the voltage bug is irreversible. Intel then later confirmed this in a statement by saying the company is “confident” the patch will keep it from happening in the first place but the damage caused by it won’t be fixed.
Intel also says that if your CPU has been damaged, it is best for users to replace it instead of trying to tweak the BIOS settings to bypass the damage.
The interesting news here is that according to Intel, high voltages aren’t the only reason some of these chips are failing. In fact, an Intel spokesperson says there’s an investigation taking place behind these instability reports that are traced back to an oxidization manufacturing issue. Intel claims the company fixed this issue but only at a later date. Perhaps the failing CPUs were manufactured before the issue was fixed and sent out to retail.
Intel, however, is carrying on like business as usual. The company hasn’t decided to recall the CPUs or pause sales on them. The company has also refused to comment on any extended warranty, how users can avoid the damage and replace them if they fail. There’s also no way to tell if your CPU will be affected by the problem.
Intel has stated that if you have a failed CPU as a result of this bug, you should contact customer support. If you already did so in the past and were sidelined (which happened to everyone), the company says you should contact them again.
The good news is there is a patch coming. Intel says it “will be an effective preventative solution for processors already in service.” Again, it won’t fix your CPU if there’s already damage to it. Just prevent it from happening.
If you’re worried that your CPU might already be failing, Robeytech put together a handy test to tell if that is the case. You can watch the video below for the details.
Source: The Verge
