There is no fix for Intel’s crashing 13th and 14th Gen CPUs — any damage is permanent

Wolfzz said:

There is no fix for Intel’s crashing 13th and 14th Gen CPUs — any damage is permanent

We got some answers from Intel, and more are on the way.

www.theverge.com

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so in essence Intel are saying, let the buyer beware so dont buy Intel.

best of luck. Steve ..

As far as I understand the issues are because of overvoltage, aka overclocking. Why overclock a new CPU in the first place? Just let it run in stock speed and if the performance is not enough apply overclocking later at your own risk. Try increasing the clock speed without touching the CPU voltage. If you have to increase the voltage, do it only if absolutely necessary (system hangs) and in as small steps as possible. Damage due to overclocking is user's responsibility (mishandling of the product) and of course it is NOT covered by Warranty. Why you except Intel to compensate you for damage that YOU caused?

@spapakons, it's not just about overclocking.


TL;DR or TL;DW - Steve (Gamers Nexus) and Wendell (Level1Techs) were talking about 13th/14th Gen CPUs used on servers and 50% of the CPUs failed.

Every old school overclocker already knew that. That's the risk of pushing a CPU even slightly above its OC limits and using the CPU at that frequency/voltage. At least in the past - when OC was done manually, unless that CPU was intended to be wasted for high benchmark scores - one would run extensive stability tests - while lowering the voltage at signs of instability. Tho, personally (obviously not the only one) - just to be safe would lower it even further. Still have a Desktop with a 14 year old intel CPU from the Core Duo era - namely Pentium Dual-Core E2160 - which had a default frequency of 1800 Mhz - running stable OC-ed to 3500 Mhz - but for the sake of a longer term stability - i kept it at 3000 Mhz and it's still running stable to this day). A practice i still uphold even for modern CPUs with Auto-Overclocking (be it Intel's Turbo Boost or some OEM OC feature) - especially for laptops (a CPU capable of a Single Core of 4500 Mhz - limited to 3500 Mhz for heavier tasks and TurboBoost Disabled for general activily like internet browing or multimedia).

This CPUs on the other hand - with forced Auto-Overclocking, even while unstable - they're mostly part of Home User systems and running at those frequencies for daily use. Now, it's also worth to be added that "Not all CPUs are the same - and when i say this i'm refering to exactly same model". For example: i9-14900K which has the messiest Auto-OC profiles (Intel side alone) - i ever witnessed to this day....



Can be perefectly stable even at 6.2 GHz / 1.48 Voltage - if lucky enough (cause that's just it - Max OC stabilty is determined by Luck - by the CPU Lottery). While for others - it's not stable even at 5.8 Ghz / 1.4 Voltage. And thus, the ouctome...


Yet, at 5.6 Ghz / 1.32 Voltage - even the latter could have been perfectly stable. So maybe if Intel didn't sacrifice its clients/consumers for higher syntetic scores (which did placed them on top - that being their main goal at the expense of stability) - the curent damaged/unstable CPUs fiasco wouldn't be a thing. But hey, it's a slimey bussines and knowing this... i always recommend pacience - to avoid being part of the sacrificed clients - and all the stress which comes with that.

​

My question remains: Why overclock a NEW CPU in the first place? Use it for a while and if you need more performance proceed carefully. And because these models have lower tolerances to overclocking than previous models doesn't that makes them bad. And of course the responsibility in case of damage is of the user, non Intel! It's like running a car too fast for too long and you cause damage. YOU are responsible, not the manufacturer! So I don't blame Intel that doesn't cover this kind of damage under Warranty. Why should they? It's clearly user mishandling of the product (operating it outside its specs).

First you have to define at what point is it called overclocking. These later model Intel CPUs were pushed to their limits to help them compete against the newer AMD CPUs. So out of the box settings had them really pushing the power/voltages. But again since these were the Intel "default" settings would that really be considered as "overclocking?" Therein lies the issue....when does normal turn into overclocking? So these later updated bios's have lowered the performance of the 13 and 14th gen CPUs. So the new performance it NOT how they were marketed. The expected updated fixes to appear in Aug to hopefully fix the issue may or may not help with performance.

It appears now that it might be the higher voltages are cooking the Ring Bus on the CPUs.

That's the point. Most of those complaining about how easy these models damage are not operating them at the default settings. They try to boost performance and overdo it. Why boost performance on a new CPU? If you don't like the default performance either buy the next model (for example Core-i7 in place of Core-i5), or compromise like all of us that cannot afford what we want and make compromises. Nobody is wiser than us and certainly not these teenagers that fry their brand new CPUs trying to overclock it with minimum knowledge. And they demand Intel replace them under Warranty! No sir, errors cost money, they eventually must learn that.

My take is most of those complaining "were" operating them using default settings. This is why this is such a big deal since Intel/board manufacturers set those parameters to begin with. And the evidence seems to point to this. 50% failure rates in some cases on systems that were not being pushed at all.

This could be fixed with a BIOS update that gives the correct voltages and doesn't push the CPU.

Based on extensive analysis of Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors returned to us due to instability issues, we have determined that elevated operating voltage is causing instability issues in some 13th/14th Gen desktop processors. Our analysis of returned processors confirms that the elevated operating voltage is stemming from a microcode algorithm resulting in incorrect voltage requests to the processor.

Intel is delivering a microcode patch which addresses the root cause of exposure to elevated voltages. We are continuing validation to ensure that scenarios of instability reported to Intel regarding its Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors are addressed. Intel is currently targeting mid-August for patch release to partners following full validation.

Intel is committed to making this right with our customers, and we continue asking any customers currently experiencing instability issues on their Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors reach out to Intel Customer Support for further assistance.

— Intel PR

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Exactly! "Elevated" = higher than default = overclocking! = Voids Warranty in case of damage!
Don't try to prove me wrong! I may not overclock computers for a living but I know what I am talking about.

Cool, for once there is a problem that does not concern me! I'm on 12th Gen! I on the contrary, undervolt my CPU a little and it allows it to run cooler and have even higher performance and it does not throttle. At the end the strategy you choose should be related to the product you have. If the CPU you have is easily and stably overclockable at descent temperature, then you can choose to squeeze some more power out of it. This is apparently not the case with 13th and 14th Gen!

spapakons said:

Exactly! "Elevated" = higher than default = overclocking! = Voids Warranty in case of damage!

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Try reading between the lines.

we have determined that elevated operating voltage is causing instability issues in some 13th/14th Gen desktop processors.

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Our analysis of returned processors confirms that the elevated operating voltage is stemming from a microcode algorithm resulting in incorrect voltage requests to the processor.

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It clearly stated stemming from a microcode algorithm.

If you watched the videos posted earlier, you would know that only 13th/14th Gen CPUs are failing.
You would also know that those CPUs were used on server (W680) boards not customer (Z790) boards.

spapakons said:

Don't try to prove me wrong! I may not overclock computers for a living but I know what I am talking about.

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If you really know what you're talking about, then you should know that server CPUs are not overclocked.
It's the opposite. In fact, they are even clocked lower to increase longevity and reduce power consumption.

In any event, whether or not you know how to overclock, it wouldn't really matter.
Because the issue is not about overclocking, it's about Intel selling defective products.

If Intel sold perfectly working 13th/14th Gen CPUs, no one would be complaining.