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.
