Oh… well, Intel’s issues with its 13th Gen and 14th Gen Core CPUs goes from bad to worse, with the company admitting that there is no fix coming, and that there is no recall for its crashing CPUs to The Verge.
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Any degradation to the processors is irreversible, with an Intel spokesperson not denying that fact when asked by The Verge. Intel said that it is “confident” that the coming patch will keep it from happening in the first place, but if your defective CPU has been damaged, there is no method to reverse it… all you can do is tweak some BIOS settings to get around the issues.
Intel confirmed that high voltages aren’t the only reason its 13th Gen and 14th Gen Core CPUs are crashing, and that Team Blue is still investaging the issue. Intel isn’t stopping any of the inventory of its affected CPUs from getting out of its doors, and the company wouldn’t share just how many chips would be irreversible damaged, nor did Intel explain why it’s continuing to sell these chips ahead of any fixes coming.
The Verge reports that Intel isn’t telling anyone how warranty replacements will work beyond trying customer support again if you’ve been rejected, and it didn’t explain how it will contact affected customers with these chips to warm them about the issue. It sounds like Intel is TRYING to actively have its customers not buy their CPUs and to move to competitor AMD and its upcoming Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series CPUs.
What did Intel actually say? Well, the company did confirm that the issues is far broader than anyone thought it was, affecting 13th Gen and 14th Gen Core CPUs at 65W power levels, not just the higher-end Core i9 processors that seemed to have been impacted by issues.
Intel told The Verge that the following CPUs have issues: 13th Gen and 14th Gen Core CPUs with 65W or higher base power, including K, KF, and KS as well as 65W non-K variants “could be affected by the elevated voltages issue“. The company adds that “however, this does not mean that all processors listed are (or will be) impacted by the elevated voltages issues“.
When asked if Intel would issue a recall, the company simply replied “No“.
When asked if Intel will proactively warn buyers of the affected chips about the warning signs, or that an update is required? Intel replied: “Intel targets to release a production microcode update to OEM/ODM customers by mid-August or sooner and will share additional details on the microcode patch at that time. Intel is investigating options to easily identify affected processors on end-user systems. In the interim, as a general best practice Intel recommends that users adhere to Intel Default Settings on their desktop processors, along with ensuring their BIOS is up to date“.
The Verge asked if Intel had halted sales or performed channel inventory recalls while it validates the update? Intel’s reply?
“No“.