13th/14th gen instability

(Image Source: pc-magazin.de)

Affected demographic: 13th and 14th Gen Intel i7 and i9 CPU's ending with K/KF/KS SKU.

Hi,

We have found some issues within the Intel Raptor Lake Architecture and want to highlight some potential fixes. Based on our findings and insights from the PC community, some of these CPU's can arrive defective out of the box and even suffering from instant degradation. Some CPU's may be flawless but could have suffered internal damage if their motherboard BIOS version is prior to the implementation of Intel Microcode 0x12B. Using a previous BIOS may result in high voltage spikes which damage the chip or immediately frying it.

Symptoms of a failing chip can consist of Blue Screens BSOD (watchdog, stop code), freezing, restarting, overheating, increased power draw.

Best practices if system is unstable:

• Use the latest non-beta BIOS available via your motherboard manufacturer website.

• Verify stability with XMP off, motherboard default bios (with enforced limits by intel) and running a system stability/stress test for at least 30 minutes.

If your CPU is defective you can:

• Verify it is defective by observing reoccurring errors and using another compatible CPU.

• Reach out to your vendor for a return or exchange that is within their policy.

• Reach out to Intel to exchange for a replacement CPU.

We hope this may help our customers with Raptor Lake based systems.

@woopcservices