The promised microcode fix for Intel 13th and 14th Gen CPU stability issues has just started rolling out in the form of BIOS updates for some motherboards. It's great news for those with an Intel chip that has not already been affected, and many of those with an already affected Intel chip should be covered by Intel's recently announced extended warranty.
But what about those who didn't buy the chip solo and instead bought a gaming PC with the chip already inside? Will they get an extended warranty, too?
This is what The Verge has asked more than a dozen PC makers. Responses ranged from matching Intel's additional two years and essentially passing this Intel warranty on to customers to offering no warranty extension at all, and some responses in between. While there unfortunately wasn't a unanimous "yes" in response, overall the response was quite positive.
Here's a summary of what the different system builders are offering:
- Asus: Two-year warranty extension
- HP: Two-year warranty extension
- iBuyPower: Five-year total CPU warranty
- Maingear: Five-year total CPU warranty
- Falcon Northwest: five-year total CPU warranty
- Digital Storm: Five-year CPU warranty
- Corsair: Four-year total CPU warranty
- Origin PC: Four-year total CPU warranty
- Puget Systems: Three-year total CPU warranty
- NZXT: No promise for warranty extension
- Dell and Alienware: No promise for warranty extension
- Acer: No promise for warranty extension
- Lenovo: No reply (yet)
- MSI: No reply (yet)
- CyberPowerPC: No human reply (yet)
It's worth noting that "no promise" response companies aren't leaving their affected customers in the lurch. Dell and Alienware say "Processors diagnosed with this issue will be replaced," whereas NZXT says they are still "Working with Intel on details to best serve impacted customers" and encourages affected users to reach out to customer service.
And then you have Acer, which says it's still completing its investigation, after which it will "Determine if any modifications will need to be made to our warranty offerings."
One should also note that responses here citing total CPU warranty lengths are, in fact, extending their warranties and not just re-stating their standard one—check out The Verge's report for the full quotes.
Intel 13th and 14th Gen CPUs with a processor base power of 65 W or higher are apparently all vulnerable to the elevated voltage issue if they haven't been patched to fix it. This includes CPUs from the Core i5 13600KF up to the Core i9 14900KS.
These warranty extensions are for chips already affected and facing instability issues. If you have a vulnerable chip that hasn't yet been affected, you should update to the latest 0x129 microcode BIOS as soon as one's been released for your motherboard.
