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
Think this is more clear than the first babel fest :laugh:
And to be crystal clear, I'm not saying AMD plans to abuse that. I'm just saying that fuse opens the way for at least some distributors to go that route. At the same time, it's probably a useful tool in diagnosing, because users sending in defective parts are very unlikely to admit they overclocked before the damage happened.
Likely just a quick sign so they don't have to dig deeper
Replace the fuse case over
Only question is will they charge for replacing the fuse or not.
You don't really have to be a rocket scientist to see where this is going. That said, if you destroy chip with an OC, you're doing something pretty special, at least, IF AMD actually doesn't have a bug or no failsafe itself like we saw not too long ago...
Meh. AMD isn't getting bonus points here imho, especially given the lackluster initial delivery of their own product lines.
TBH I think its just for those ones that show obvious damage from overclock/overvolt and gives AMD a quick double check to go "hey you melted the I/O die and you had Overclocking enabled.......WTF did you actually do?"
Overclocking is a dying breed.
Good one.
You mean they can't just pop the hood damn lol
Plus, with all the VRMs, it's really, really hard for fluctuations to ever reach the CPUs anyway.
Also, what about EXPO and PBO? Are these going to blow it?
It isn't about warranty, but for the intended use case, as a working machine, stability is priority No.1 and everything should run according to Spec.
The way CPUs are built these days, you'd be better off investing in better cooling that will let the CPU boost for longer. That would net you more additional performance than manual overclocking.
We can say many things about (multi billion) companies and retailers, but some consumers aren't better.That's why it is crucial to buy a PSU that is of good quality. Of course someone can always have the luck of buying a bad unit of the best possible PSU model in the market, that just wasn't discovered from the manufacturer's quality check. But those cases are probably less than the (real) number of burned 4090's out there.