Intel releases third update for 13th and 14th generation CPUs with frequent crashes

Intel continues to investigate the crash issues occurring in its 13th and 14th generation Core processors and has released two microcode updates to mitigate the crash issues. On September 25, 2024, Intel announced a third update as an additional mitigation measure and released microcode ' 0x12b '.

Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen Desktop Instability Root Cause Update - Intel Community
https://community.intel.com/t5/Blogs/Tech-Innovation/Client/Intel-Core-13th-and-14th-Gen-Desktop-Instability-Root-Cause/post/1633239

Intel has been investigating the issue of PCs with 13th and 14th generation Core processors reporting that games are crashing or software is not working properly.

In June 2024, Intel released the microcode '0x125' to mitigate 'abnormal input voltage rise when the CPU becomes hot'. In addition, in July 2024, Intel acknowledged that the cause of the crash problem was its own design , and in August 2024, it released the microcode '0x129' including the fix 'Limiting voltage requests exceeding 1.55V'.

Intel releases patch for crash-prone CPUs, but some performance tests show 'moderate impact' - GIGAZINE

Intel continued its investigation and discovered a new issue: 'abnormal voltage rise occurs when the processor is idle or under light load.' To address this issue, Intel released microcode '0x12b.' The microcode update is performed via a BIOS update.

To investigate the impact of the introduction of 0x12b on performance, Intel ran several games on machines with Core i9-14900K and DDR5 5200MT/s memory and Core i9-14900K and DDR5 5600MT/s memory. As a result, it was reported that the introduction of 0x12b had no significant impact on performance.

The update released by Intel this time is for desktop processors. There are many reports on the Internet that 'laptops equipped with 13th and 14th generation Core processors also experience crashing issues,' but Intel stated in the update announcement that '13th and 14th generation mobile processors and future products such as Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake are not affected by this issue,' and maintained its position that the crashing issue is specific to desktop processors.

Intel claims that the 13th and 14th generation CPU issues do not occur on laptops, but is further refuted - GIGAZINE

By Morton Lin