Intel is preparing a patch for a widespread instability issue plaguing some processors. If your PC is already crashing, I’ve got bad news for you.
Modern processors are incredibly complex, and even a tiny flaw during manufacturing can have serious and widespread repercussions. This seems to be the case with 13th and 14th Gen Intel Core desktop processors, where a manufacturing issue has resulted in users experiencing widespread instability.
The good news is that Intel has prepared a fix that should be ready later this month. The bad news is that processors may have already suffered permanent damage.
The cause of this issue has been traced back to erroneous CPU microcode (this is the firmware that runs on the processor, controlling low-level operations), causing the chip to ask for more power than it needs and pushing the processor outside its safe operating envelope. This issue only appears to affect desktop processors, with mobile versions of the 13th and 14th Gen Intel Core processors being unaffected.
Intel has created updated microcode that patches the issue, and it expects this to be ready by mid-August. This is good news, but it’s also where things get messy.
First off, this updated microcode has to make its way to affected PCs through BIOS updates from motherboard makers or via Windows updates, so it could be a while before this trickles down to affected users.
It gets worse. According to a report by Tom’s Hardware, as soon as a PC starts to crash, the processor has suffered « irreversible degradation », which means it’s been permanently damaged.
