Intel releases one last microcode update to fix high-end desktop CPU crashes

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Intel has spent most of 2024 investigating and trying to fix a problems that was causing crashes and instability for owners of its high-end 13th- and 14th-generation Core desktop processors. In April, Intel suggested that motherboard makers could be the problem because many motherboards used power settings that exceeded Intel's defaults.

By the summer, Intel had tracked down one root cause of the problems and had released a microcode update to resolve it: The CPUs were making “elevated voltage requests,” which could degrade performance and stability and damage the hardware over time. The company and motherboard makers released separate BIOS updates to fix the incorrect default power settings and the elevated voltage requests, but Intel said in August that it was still looking into other possible problems and fixes.

Today, the company is releasing what should be the final fix for the problem, which, as Tom's Hardware reports, is a confluence of four issues: too-high motherboard defaults, a bug that kept some CPUs from downshifting when they were running too hot, a bug where CPUs were being given too much voltage for an extended period, and a bug where CPUs were given too much voltage when they were idle.