Intel's patch for CPU instability and crashing issues rolls out from MSI and ASRock — Asus ROG motherboard users can also access a beta update

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Enthusiasts will be keen to check performance and see a halt to degradation.

Intel 14th-Gen Core
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Several Intel motherboard partners have announced BIOS updates to patch the microcode and "mitigate the instability" of Core 13th and 14th Gen CPUs. Two motherboard makers — ASRock and MSI — have already made official announcements at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Asus ROG forum user and famed overclocker Safedisk posted links to Google Drive folders that purportedly contain BIOS updates for affected Asus motherboards.

Several Intel 13th and 14th Gen chips have been affected by instability issues, which Intel said has been caused by an error in the processor's microcode that led to increased voltages. Over time crashes and BSODs, especially during high workloads, have resulted, and the company said that it will release a patch to fix the issue in mid-August.

Unfortunately, this update will not help users who already have dead or dying Intel processors. Instead, those affected will need to go through Intel's RMA process to have the damaged chips replaced. The company recently added two years to the warranty of 22 affected Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh SKUs, giving them a five-year guarantee to assuage consumers' fears that their processors will fail after the warranty has lapsed. Despite the extended assurance, one user reportedly had to deal with some RMA drama with Intel when trying to replace two affected Intel Core i9-14900K processors.

However, if your Intel system is still running stably, you should download and install the new BIOS updates as soon as possible to mitigate any potential issues. MSI said that these are the first batch of motherboards that will receive the update:

·      MEG Z790 GODLIKE MAX

·      MEG Z790 ACE MAX

·      MPG Z790 CARBON MAX WIFI II

·      MPG Z790 CARBON WIFI

·      MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI

·      Z790M POWER

ASRock released BIOS updates for the H610M-HDV and H610M-HVS motherboards. You can also find BIOS updates for Asus ROG and ProArt motherboards on the Asus ROG forum, although they're only Beta builds. We still recommend holding off on downloading these updates until Asus releases the final builds, though, to ensure that you're getting a stable patch.

Tom's Hardware has already reached out to Intel about the new BIOS updates to confirm if these updates will make it safe to run the affected chips at regular power levels. We are also testing the available BIOS updates to see how they affect system performance, so be sure to check back with us to stay up to date.  

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Jowi Morales
Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

35 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Gururu
    How are sites even going to test this? What are the best controls to ensure a solid confirmation of the fix?
    Reply
  • ThisIsMe
    Always have to toss in that "at least one user claimed to have a bad experience with..." comment. Even when it's clearly just hearsay.
    Reply
  • ThatMouse
    I imagine 99% of their customers will never know about this update. BIOS updates are not something an average user should do.
    Reply
  • rene641
    What is the number of new microcode? I have a Gigabye z690 UD DDR4 and latest bios update from Gigabyte was from July 17

    Checksum : 7298
    Introduce the "Intel Default Settings" and enabled as default, user needs to disable it first to use GIGABYTE PerfDrive profiles.
    Update microcode 0x125 to ensure eTVB operation normally.
    Reply
  • TJ Hooker
    ThatMouse said:
    I imagine 99% of their customers will never know about this update. BIOS updates are not something an average user should do.
    New microcode can be applied via operating system updates, I imagine that's how most people will get this fix.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    Gururu said:
    How are sites even going to test this? What are the best controls to ensure a solid confirmation of the fix?
    Confirmation that the 'fix' works and halts degradation will be basically impossible in the short-term. All you could do is check voltages in "unlimited" mode with an old BIOS revision and then compare it to the latest BIOS to see how things have changed.

    Checking the performance impact will require using an earlier BIOS with the latest Windows patches and application updates, testing that, and then installing the latest BIOS with the fix and retesting. Any older numbers from months ago are already potentially invalid so you really need to do retesting with old and new BIOS revisions to get hard numbers that are trustworthy.
    Reply
  • jeremyj_83
    JarredWaltonGPU said:
    Confirmation that the 'fix' works and halts degradation will be basically impossible in the short-term. All you could do is check voltages in "unlimited" mode with an old BIOS revision and then compare it to the latest BIOS to see how things have changed.

    Checking the performance impact will require using an earlier BIOS with the latest Windows patches and application updates, testing that, and then installing the latest BIOS with the fix and retesting. Any older numbers from months ago are already potentially invalid so you really need to do retesting with old and new BIOS revisions to get hard numbers that are trustworthy.
    All while hoping that testing with the old BIOS doesn't wind up frying the chip.
    Reply
  • helper800
    ThisIsMe said:
    Always have to toss in that "at least one user claimed to have a bad experience with..." comment. Even when it's clearly just hearsay.
    Well considering Tomshardware is not in a court proceeding, any and all 3rd party accounts of an RMA experience is fair game for journalists, that's kinda what they do.
    Reply
  • Mattzun
    Testing voltages with an oscilloscope in scenarios that previously caused weird voltage spikes is possible.
    I'm sure someone like Buildzoid will do that - he had a decent video where he showed the weird spikes that were too short to see in HWInfo.

    If that works, it would show that the patch isn't a complete failure, but it wouldn't show that it actually fixes the problem(s).

    The best check would be for someone who claims to be able to cause 100 percent failures within 6 months of use (i.e. Alderon games) to test it on several systems with new 14900's and release results in January.
    Of course, that assumes that the patch will be available on W680 motherboards in the near future.

    In any case, there is no way of telling how close to failing all of the existing, damaged CPUs are.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    My asrock is making weird noises from vrm after bios patch, removed c6 and c7 to mitigate the noises...
    Asrock h670 PG riptide
    Reply