Wednesday, December 13th 2023
Threadripper Overclocking Blows a Hidden Fuse, AMD confirms: Warranty not Voided
According to Tom's Hardware, today we are finding out that AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series processors, codenamed Storm Peak, including Pro and non-Pro SKUs, blow a fuse on the chip when overclocking is enabled. Modern microprocessors have dozens of fuses that are used to store information inside the chip. For example, the factory stores the per-processor default voltage information in the fuses. On downgraded graphics chips, the shaders get disabled through such fuses, too. These fuses are not like your household circuit breakers—they will blow only when a specific command is sent to the processor, there is no way for them to break accidentally through system crashes or power spikes. In the case of Ryzen Threadripper 7000, the BIOS code will blow a fuse when the user enables overclocking in the BIOS settings, it reacts only to the user-initiated UI change, not to any kind of measurement. Before that happens a warning is shown. AMD uses this mechanism to see any indications if any kind of overclocking has been done to the processor.
While the messaging might suggest otherwise, just enabling overclocking does not void all warranties. In a statement to Tom's Hardware an AMD representative confirmed: "Threadripper 7000 Series processors do contain a fuse that is blown when overclocking is enabled. To be clear, blowing this fuse does not void your warranty. Statements that enabling an overclocking/overvolting feature will "void" the processor warranty are not correct. Per AMD's standard Terms of Sale, the warranty excludes any damage that results from overclocking/overvolting the processor. However, other unrelated issues could still qualify for warranty repair/replacement," noted the spokesperson. Ultimately, overclocking and overvolting by themselves will not cause the owner of AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series CPU to lose the right to repair and seek AMD's help. Other factors, such as damages induced by overclocking, will be a warranty-voiding factor though. These can occur from constant overheating, which significantly lowers the life expectancy of the CPU.
Source:
Tom's Hardware
While the messaging might suggest otherwise, just enabling overclocking does not void all warranties. In a statement to Tom's Hardware an AMD representative confirmed: "Threadripper 7000 Series processors do contain a fuse that is blown when overclocking is enabled. To be clear, blowing this fuse does not void your warranty. Statements that enabling an overclocking/overvolting feature will "void" the processor warranty are not correct. Per AMD's standard Terms of Sale, the warranty excludes any damage that results from overclocking/overvolting the processor. However, other unrelated issues could still qualify for warranty repair/replacement," noted the spokesperson. Ultimately, overclocking and overvolting by themselves will not cause the owner of AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series CPU to lose the right to repair and seek AMD's help. Other factors, such as damages induced by overclocking, will be a warranty-voiding factor though. These can occur from constant overheating, which significantly lowers the life expectancy of the CPU.
73 Comments on Threadripper Overclocking Blows a Hidden Fuse, AMD confirms: Warranty not Voided
:D
This is 'research' for whether the bad press from denying RMAs for using advertised features* outweighs the savings to the bottom line.
*admittedly, this is more an Intel thing @TM.
Stop the insults, too.
It's been rumored a long time that AMD has had these built in hardware checks since they moved to chiplets, if not before. It just never mattered because:
- AMD's RMA policies are pretty lax and inconsistent as hell
- The check in AGESA has never implied any permanent changes and still comes up every time even if you accept
The statement from the AMD rep is largely in line with the stance they already take to RMAs. AMD's well aware that overclocking is a key universal selling point of AM4/AM5 - they can get away with a lot of things on something much less popular and receiving less attention like TR platforms.If anything, their RMA dept is more focused on feeding you the same canned response in hopes that you'll go away instead of RMAing for specific issues (e.g. reboots); if you come to them with an outright dead or defective chip, to which their canned response doesn't apply, they don't usually put up much resistance in my experience.
AM4/AM5 do not get the same kind of message. If you read the actual source article, Threadripper also gets the standard PBO message from AGESA that you are seeing, but this short one is a new addition and doesn't appear to be coming from the AGESA. If it's just inserted by the board vendor into their BIOS, then this whole bit of news is just a nothingburger, which is why the AMD rep responded in the way they did.
As to the standard PBO message: if it is simply a message and doesn't make hardware changes, then there's no issue. If it does make hardware changes, it still has always been ignored by AMD RMA and has never been an issue.
I'm familiar with at least one (semi-local to me) that specializes in (what I'd call) Halo-Tier +1 HEDTs and High-Performance Workstations:
IDK exactly who their clients are, but I imagine
Cinema-CGI and "Sci./Sim." clientele. AFAIK, there's 0 chance these are 'replace-/repair-able'
These are in-silicon 'fuses'
IIRC, This has come up w/ OEM-locking AM4 Ryzens, prior.It's become concerningly-common to
simultaneously advertise OverClocking
while the fine print says that using the advertised feature voids warranty.
However--^this^ has generally been my experience(s) with every company I've ever RMA'd with; most-recently, AMD for my early R5 5600 that lost cores (PBO'd).
So, to be fair (at least, for the time being)
most companies seem to merely reserve the right to deny an RMA
based on OCing.
IMO,
this knowledge (about die-level fuses) is about as-impactful as the knowledge of Pentium IIIs being 'serialized' (A once-controversial action from Intel; a long time ago)
It may have implications but, for most-of-us
(enthusiasts, niche-markets, etc. inclu.)
it's (mostly) inconsequential. Just... 'stay vigilant'
in this day-and-age of anti-consumer, anti-ownership, anti-RTR, everything :shadedshu:
Basically, don't overclock threadrippers cpus if you want to keep your warranty lolIt's simply not possible, they're in the silicon itself, it's not a fuse like you see on a random appliance, it's like a transistor engraved in the silicon but instead of fullfilling some architecture logic it's designed to work like a fuse.
The most suspect errors would be: (If any of the same errors continue, even at stock core clocks)
1: A machine check exception error (known as a WHEA error by Microsoft) (WHEA is another term of Microsoft alphabet soup. It stands for Windows Hardware Error Architecture, even though, I thought it was "Windows Hardware Error Assessment")
2: "0xA"/"0xa" BSOD ("IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" BSOD, which is a known CPU fault error, only seen with an unstable core OC, usually. You can get that error code during a failed Linpack core test)