I’ve seen 4 videos from tech channels just chastising Intel’s communication, I can’t seem to find a concise source for the actual facts of the fiasco.
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CPUs require very specific voltages to work properly, running too much voltage for too long or the wrong amount can break bits inside ’em. Intel ran 13th and 14th generation CPUs for sale with a bug in the code that controls voltage that over volted cpus, so that under certain conditions (playing games, doing intensive calculations, etc…) the over voltage permanently damaged the chips. Rather than recalling the product, they quietly replaced the ones of people who complained and sat on the issue for a very long time.
Now they’ve just announced they have a fix (an update for motherboards that run the affected CPUs) which will solve the problem for people who buy new ones, but wont solve it for CPUs that were broken by over volting already since it’s actual physical damage.
Intel management tried cost saving by cutting quality controls in their manufacturing process. Little surprise there: the quality of the manufacturing process went downhill – and they sold and shipped thousands, possibly millions of defective processors, which are now rotting in their customers’ computers.
And the most affected processors were even their most expensive consumer models (the ones especially gamers like), which makes the whole issue potentially very, very expensive.
All that comes at a time when Intel is already under a lot of financial pressure, so their first instinct was that it isn’t their fault: the users are to blame, the mainboard manufacturers are to blame, the media is to blame… etc. All of which didn’t really help to gain trust into their business practices, and so now people are simply avoiding buying Intel processors until this is sorted out… which of course puts even more financial pressure on the company…
You can’t get a better ELI5 on this subject than this [YouTube short](https://youtube.com/shorts/EJIM_oqvXD8?si=Q2UOdc0N2yf-ktpO).
As for why the problem exists, the lack of good communication from Intel means we don’t know why.
Intel fucked up their “microcode”. Microcode handles CPU power usage on the physical level.
Imagine your CPU like a city built entirely out of factories, and those factories need constantly fluctuating amounts of power to run properly.
Now imagine if the power grid would, every now and then, accidentally randomly send so much power to a factory that it burns down, destroying that factory’s ability to contribute to your city, forever. It’s permanent damage.
That’s what is happening to Intel CPUs
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