Modern processors are incredibly complex, and even a small flaw during manufacturing can have serious and widespread repercussions. This appears to be the case with Intel’s 13th and 14th Gen Core desktop processors, where a manufacturing issue has caused users to experience widespread instability.
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The good news is that Intel has prepared a fix that should be ready by the end of this month. The bad news is that the processors may already have suffered permanent damage.
The cause of this problem has been Traces back to erroneous CPU microcode (this is firmware that runs on the processor and controls low-level operations), causing the chip to draw more power than it needs and the processor to go outside its safe operating range. This issue only appears to affect desktop processors, while mobile versions of the 13th and 14th Gen Intel Core processors are not affected.
Intel has created an updated microcode that fixes the problem and hopes to have it ready by mid-August. This is good news, but it is also the starting point for complications.
First, this updated microcode has to reach affected PCs via BIOS updates from motherboard manufacturers or through Windows updates, so it could take a while before it reaches affected users.
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But things get worse. According to a report by Tom’s Hardware StoreAs soon as a PC starts to fail, the processor has suffered “irreversible degradation,” meaning it has suffered permanent damage. No microcode update can repair a damaged processor, and Intel’s advice is that “customers experiencing instability on their systems based on 13th or 14th Gen desktop processors should contact Intel Customer Care for further assistance.”
Intel also isn’t making it easy for customers to know if they’re affected. The company hasn’t yet provided 13th and 14th Gen Intel Core users with a way to tell if their processor is affected beyond telling them a Robeytech YouTube Video which shows how to use the Nvidia GeForce driver package to test for this issue – the problem is that this only works for Nvidia GeForce GPU users, so there is no universal test to highlight affected processors.
Intel has confirmed that 13th and 14th Gen Intel Core desktop processors with 65W or higher, including 65W K/KF/KS and non-K variants, may be affected, but not all processors are. has said It said it is “investigating options to easily identify affected processors on end-user systems,” but there is no further information or timeline available.
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But what if your PC doesn’t crash and you want to prevent it from breaking down? Intel’s advice is this: “Intel recommends that users stick to Intel’s default settings on their desktop processors, in addition to ensuring their BIOS is up to date. Once the microcode patch is released to Intel partners, we recommend that users check for appropriate BIOS updates.”
As to whether Intel will issue a recall, the company gave The edge A one-word answer: “no.”