Likely a motherboard BIOS issue:
High-performance microprocessors tend to get hot and, when overclocked without proper cooling or throttling, can literally burn out When an old CPU does so in an old PC because of dust and a worn out fan, there is nothing surprising about it. But when a new CPU breaks on a shiny new motherboard, that's surprising. This is what happened to an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, one of the best CPUs, which belonged to a Reddit user. And, according to other users, he's not alone.
"The CPU pad is physically bulging," wrote Speedrookie, the owner of the burned-out processor. "I imagine there was just too much heat on the contacts causing the pad to expand. Not that the CPU has an internal component which exploded."
At least when it comes to AMD's Ryzen 7000X3D-series processors, it appears that this is by far not an isolated case. There are reports from other Reddit users who had the same experience with their Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs on motherboards from Asus and MSI.
Famous overclocker der8auer also had an issue with an AMD Ryzen 7000X3D chip burning out during some early overclocking tests a few weeks ago. As you can see in his video, he says "I did not expect this to happen so quickly and especially right out of the BIOS."
There are about a million of reasons why a modern processor can burn out. Defective sockets or a motherboards [sic] are likely causes and insufficient cooling can cause a similar result. A BIOS version that tends to automatically overclock CPUs too much could be a yet another reason for a processor failure. In fact, as noticed by HXL (@9550pro), Asus has just withdrew old BIOSes for many of its AMD X670-based motherboards, but for some of them old BIOSes are still available.
[...] Again, given that the information is insufficient to say the least, we cannot make any conclusions at this point. We'll reach out to our contacts at AMD and the motherboard vendors to see if they are aware of any issues. For now, we recommend that those with AMD's Ryzen 7000X3D processors keep a close eye on their CPU temps, use adequate cooling and keep their BIOSes up-to-date.
« Physicists Create the Fattest Schrödinger's Cat Ever | The SpaceX Starship Explosion Was Deliberate »
Related Stories
We reported this problem a couple of days ago, here:
Impacts all motherboard makers and all Ryzen 7000 chips:
Multiple reports of Ryzen processors burning out have burst onto the internet over the last few days. The damaged chips have not only bulged out and overheated to the point they have become desoldered, but they have also done significant damage to the motherboards they are installed in. We reached out to our industry contacts and learned some new information about the nature of the problem and the scope of AMD's planned fix. Our information comes from multiple sources that wish to remain anonymous, but the info from our sources aligns on all key technical details. As with all unofficial information, we should take the finer details with a grain of salt until AMD issues an official statement.
First, we're told this condition can occur with both standard Ryzen 7000 models and the new Ryzen 7000X3D chips, though the latter is far more sensitive to the condition, and the root cause could be different between the two types of chips. AMD will issue a fix soon, but the timeline is unknown. We're told that failures have occurred with all motherboard brands, including Biostar, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, and ASRock.
According to our sources and seconded by an ASUS statement to Der8auer, the problem stems from SoC voltages being altered to unsafe higher levels. This can be imposed from either the pre-programmed voltages used in EXPO memory overclocking profiles or when a user manually adjusts the SoC voltages (a common practice to eke out a bit more memory overclocking headroom).
Our sources also added further details about the nature of the chip failures — in some cases, excessive SoC voltages destroy the chips' thermal sensors and thermal protection mechanisms, completely disabling its only means of detecting and protecting itself from overheating. As a result, the chip continues to operate without knowing its temperature or tripping the thermal protections.
AMD's modern chips often run at their thermal limits to squeeze out every last drop of performance within their safe thermal range — it isn't uncommon for them to run at 95C during normal operation — so they will automatically continue to draw more power until it dials back to remain within a safe temperature. In this case, the lack of temperature sensors and protection mechanisms allows the chip to receive more power beyond the recommended safe limits. This excessive power draw leads to overheating that eventually causes physical damage to the chip, like the bowing we've seen on the outside of several chip packages, or the desoldering reported by Der8auer.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday April 24, @03:18PM (1 child)
For the price of a computer, you also get a barbecue. What's not to love eh? And those ungrateful bastard complain. Some people...
(Score: 3, Funny) by sonamchauhan on Tuesday April 25, @12:54AM
it's a microprocessor, so the free barbeque is a microbarbeque.
There are no micro chickens - that's the real problem
(Score: 5, Insightful) by turgid on Monday April 24, @03:50PM (2 children)
Are these CPUs burning out at the advertised clock speeds with the right cooler or are they burning out only when overclocked? If it's only when overclocked then you're operating it out of spec so you're on your own. If you are going to do risky things like overclocking you have to expect a few unpleasant surprises. If you really want the extra speed, spend the extra $100 for the faster part.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Informative) by MonkeypoxBugChaser on Monday April 24, @10:32PM
CPUs had a thermal safety, maybe after athlon xp. People are just complacent.
(Score: 3, Informative) by toddestan on Wednesday April 26, @03:43AM
The issue seems to revolve around the EXPO/XMP profiles for RAM, which is more or less factory overclocking. Essentially most RAM is now sold with a "stock" profile, and one or more EXPO (AMD)or XMP (Intel) profiles also baked-in for easy overclocking where you don't have to mess around with the timings/speeds/latencies/etc as the manufacturer has [supposedly] tested the RAM at overclock speeds put together these profiles that should more or less [supposedly] just work with little fuss.
The RAM is of course marketed by these overclocked profiles. It may be sold as DDR5-6000, but the fine print reveals it's really something like DDR5-4800 and 6000 is the overclock speed. So Joe Gamer puts together his fancy new AMD PC, boots it up, wonders why the fast memory kit he spent a bunch of money on is running at some slow speed from like 2 years ago. He reads on a forum post that he needs to enable EXPO. So with a couple of clicks in the BIOS, and now he's running at 6000 MHz, he's happy, and he's also overclocked his PC possibly without even realizing it.
I've always assumed that this sort of factory overclocking was more or less "safe". Obviously turning things to manual and messing around with things like the voltages myself and it's pretty clear I'm on my own. But something like EXPO is kind of an semi-official standard that requires support from the manufacturers of the memory, the motherboard, and the CPU in order for you to use it. I've always assumed that while it may not be 100% guaranteed to be completely stable, but it should at least not be doing anything that could actually damage the hardware. But it would appear I have been wrong about that.