Intel commits to two-year extended warranties for unstable chips

By Luke Larsen Updated August 1, 2024

Intel's 14900K CPU socketed in a motherboard. — Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

By now, you’ve probably heard about concerns surrounding the stability of Intel’s 13th- and 14th-generation desktop chips. It’s an ugly situation all around.

But we finally have some news that’s at least heading in the right direction. Intel has apologized for the lack of communication around the issue, and with that, it announced a two-year extended warranty for boxed 13th- and 14th-gen Intel Core processors.

The entire statement was posted on the Intel community forum and is pasted below:

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.

The details on the extended warranty, as Intel notes, are yet to be fully shared. It sounds like we’ll certainly hear more in the next few days, such as the terms of the warranty, what chips it will apply to, and how easy it will be to access repairs or replacements.

Until now, Intel has been fairly tight-lipped and dodgy about its response to the controversy. We’re still waiting on a microcode patch that will supposedly fix the problem, but for many users, the physical damage has already been done.

Intel has already stated outright that a recall is out of the question, but this extended warranty could certainly appease some people who have been frustrated by Intel’s response so far.

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Senior Editor, Computing

Luke Larsen is the Senior editor of computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.

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