No Fix for 13th and 14th Gen Intel CPUs Crashing: Any Damage is Permanent

An anonymous reader shares a report: On Monday, it seemed like it was the beginning of the end for Intel’s desktop processor instability issues: The company confirmed that a patch would be available in mid-August, and that it should address the “root cause” of high-voltage exposure. But if your 13th or 14th Gen Intel Core processor is already crashing, this patch apparently won’t fix the problem.

Citing unnamed sources, Tom’s Hardware reports that any CPU degradation is irreversible, and an Intel spokesperson didn’t deny this when asked. Intel is “confident” that the fix will prevent this from happening in the first place. But if your faulty CPU has been damaged, your best option is to replace it instead of changing BIOS settings to try to fix the issues.

Intel confirms that high voltages aren’t the only reason some of these chips are failing. Intel spokesperson Thomas Hannaford confirms that it’s the root cause, but the company is still investigating. Intel Community Manager Lex Hoyos also revealed that some reports of instability can be attributed to an oxidation manufacturing issue that was fixed at an unspecified date last year.