Intel has officially announced that it is extending the warranty for 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake-S desktop CPUs, amidst the onling instability issues that first reared its ugly head back in April this year. There is a small catch, and that is the warranty is only applicable to boxed CPUs, as in processors bought individually, and not for processors sold as part of a system by OEMs or system integrators. Those folks will need to reach out to Intel Customer Support.
As per its official announcement on the Community page:
Intel is committed to making sure all customers who have or are currently experiencing instability symptoms on their 13th and/or 14th Gen desktop processors are supported in the exchange process. We stand behind our products, and in the coming days we will be sharing more details on two-year extended warranty support for our boxed Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors.
In the meantime, if you are currently or previously experienced instability symptoms on your Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop system:
- For users who purchased systems from OEM/System Integrators – please reach out to your system manufacturer’s support team for further assistance.
- For users who purchased a boxed CPU – please reach out to Intel Customer Support for further assistance.
At the same time, we apologize for the delay in communications as this has been a challenging issue to unravel and definitively root cause.
Intel had previously also released an explanation as to why some of the 13th and 14th Gen desktop CPUs were experiencing instability issues, citing an Oxidation Issue that was identified back in 2022 and addressed in early 2023. Unfortunately, some of the components affected by the oxidation made their way into the assembly floor and could still be in circulation until 2024. Additionally, it also identified another issue with the affected CPUs, narrowing it down to an “elevated operating voltage” stemming from a microcode algorithm.
A patch for that is expected sometime this month but sadly, the blue chipmaker had silently confirmed that any damage done to 13th and 14th processors prior would be irreversible.
(Source: Intel)
