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
2. IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL has nothing to do with OC. Dying CPUs, unstable memory setups and physically defective boards do it aplenty.
Bottom line, AMD RMA staff are the last people on earth to be considered qualified enough and giving enough of a shit to enforce any kind of general policy about PBO/OC = no warranty. I'm pretty sure most of them are in some kind of call center in Asia anyway. Just firmly feed them enough technical jargon to get past the one or two canned responses about "troubleshooting", and the fast RMA process gets going (iirc even cross shipped sometimes).
Regardless of detailed-cause, after the tiniest amount of (expected) 'hassle', verifying my purchase/ownership
AMD replaced my R5 5600 in a very reasonable amount of time, and gave me a BNIB 'retail' replacement while specifying that I not include my stock cooler.
No cross-shipping but, I did get a free Display Box, Stock Cooler, and best of all Case Badge :D
To me, this is about visibility: most users won't admit they overclocked it, once it goes belly up.
Another variant is laser-cut fuses, which are just a line on the substrate that a laser cuts through, that you can fix with conductive paint
and there's die-fuses, which are inside the silicon, not user-visible, can only read them with an electron-microscope, or if you know how to read them through software
It's kind of funny when you think of it. I mean what do you think when you press the "I accept" button in the bios warning when overclocking is enabled? Save it in memory? A burned up cpu can have no memory. No, you have a "fuse". ;)
Again, this is idiotic smoke and mirrors I'm calling out and others should too.
We're spitballing but they could well be on the CCD but while that flipped bit indicates overclocking in threadripper, in ryzen it indicates something entirely different.
The wording definitely makes it sound like a permanent action.
If you do, please share here what they wrote
Pretty much setting xmp profile voids warranty message lol okay as rock :kookoo:
Just having the option there is as rock legally liable hehe