There is something wrong with ASRock motherboards, as this isn't the first time we are seeing two dead CPUs back to back.
Two Ryzen 9 9950X Killed on ASRock X870 Steel Legend WiFi; Each Lived for Only 3-4 Months, and Latest BIOS Couldn't Revive Them
Popular Tech YouTuber, Tech Yes City, has reported killing two of his AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPUs in a span of just a few months. The channel owner, Bryan, has been running various configurations, but this one seems to have been the most brutal to his Ryzen 9 9950X CPU. Bryan says that the first Ryzen 9 9950X operated for 3-4 months on his ASRock X870 Steel Legend WiFi motherboard, but then failed unexpectedly.
He bought another Ryzen 9 9950X from a different source, but that too died in a similar time span on the same motherboard. Since he owns a lot of AM5 motherboards, he was able to confirm it was dead after trying to boot with different models and even updating to the latest BIOS, which was meant to mitigate CPU failure issues. Some interesting information was revealed in this investigation, which points to a defective batch of ASRock motherboards rather than a defective batch of AMD Ryzen 9000 CPUs, which he previously assumed.
While he was informed by a major Australian retailer that the Ryzen 9000 CPU failure rates are completely normal, it was interesting to see that the retailer didn't stock high-end ASRock motherboards due to such failures. Nonetheless, we have seen multiple reports suggesting that the failure rates aren't too high as they were in the case of Intel 13th/14th-gen processors. Still, there appears to be something wrong with some ASRock motherboards, which probably have a VRM regulator issue, resulting in voltage overshoot.
This results in gradual electrical degradation of the CPU rather than an instant catastrophic failure, which can be confirmed from the deaths of both Ryzen 9 9950X units. Bryan also has several ASRock B850 and X870-based setups, which has been working completely fine for a long time, which could indicate that there are "certain" ASRock boards that are defective, but it is hard to detect the root cause on these.
While ASRock has been rolling out the latest BIOSes to fix boot failures with certain Ryzen 9000 CPUs, BIOS updates may not fix the faulty components in the VRM. At the moment, it appears that a certain combination of CPUs + high-end ASRock motherboards sees more failure rates than the others, and Bryan recommends replacing both the motherboard and CPU if users ever experience such a CPU failure on their current setup.
News Source: Tech Yes City
About the author: Sarfraz Khan is a hardware reporter with a focus on PC components and the builder community. With years of experience writing about PC hardware and laptops, his work has been featured on several reputable technology publications. Sarfraz's hands-on experience is demonstrated through his first-person accounts of using and comparing different hardware configurations, providing practical and relatable insights for everyday users. His technical analysis is respected by peers in the enthusiast community and has been cited by specialized hardware sites such as Germany's Igor's Lab.
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