Intel has identified an issue affecting the stability of their 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors, caused by elevated operating voltages. This problem stems from a microcode algorithm that incorrectly requests higher-than-necessary voltages, leading to potential instability in some systems.
Intel has developed a microcode patch to address this issue. The patch will correct the elevated voltage requests and improve processor stability. This patch has been made available to motherboard manufacturers and has been implemented in a bios update.
What You Should Do if You’ve Purchased an Intel 13th Gen or 14th Gen powered PC
If you’ve purchased a PC with one of these processors, we highly recommend updating your system to the latest BIOS, which includes the fix for these instability issues.
You can find detailed instructions on how to update your BIOS below:
UEFI/BIOS Update
1. To start this process, you will need a flash drive.
2. Back up any data on the flash drive.
3. Format the flash drive to FAT32 format. Formatting will delete any data on the drive. If it is already formatted to FAT32 you can skip formatting the drive, but we recommend removing all data off the drive before proceeding.
4. Download the BIOS update files from the manufacturer’s website for your specific motherboard model.
5. Extract the files from the download onto the flash drive.
6. Restart the computer, as it boots repeatedly hit the Delete key to enter BIOS. If you get to your operating system you will need to restart the system and try again.
7. Once in BIOS, check to see if XMP is enabled on your system. Take note of if it was and which version then proceed, we will use that information later.
8. Navigate to the manufacturer’s designated BIOS update tool in BIOS. (E.g. ASUS EZ Flash, MSI M-Flash, ASRock Instant Flash, Gigabyte Q-Flash)
9. Once in the BIOS update tool, select the BIOS file on the flash drive and start the BIOS update.
10. During the update, leave the system alone and DO NOT turn the system off. Interrupting the update could damage the motherboard.
11. Once the update has finished installation, double check the version number in BIOS. If it’s correct you’ve successfully completed the BIOS update.
12. If XMP was enabled, noted from step 7, re-enable it now. If it was not, skip this step.
13. Save and Exit the BIOS, once the system has rebooted into the operating system you’re all set.
The following links are for the manufacturer support pages to look up the motherboard model to find the BIOS files, as well as links to their own BIOS update instructions if available.
ASRock
https://www.asrock.com/support/index.us.asp
https://www.asrock.com/support/BIOSIG.asp?cat=BIOS10
ASUS
https://www.asus.com/us/support/
https://www.asus.com/us/support/faq/1008859/
MSI
https://us.msi.com/support/download/mb
https://us.msi.com/support/technical_details/MB_BIOS_Update
Gigabyte