Users hoping that Intel’s fix for its 13th and 14th Gen processors won’t fix CPUs that have already begun crashing, with those chips experiencing “irreversible degradation.”

Intel’s latest CPUs have been plagued with problems, with users reporting crashes and instability. The company announced that it had found the problem, saying a faulty microcode algorithm was causing “elevated operating voltage” in the impacted processors.

Citing unnamed source, Tom’s Hardware says the damage experience by crashing CPUs is irreversible:

The bug causes irreversible degradation of the impacted processors. We’re told that the microcode patch will not repair processors already experiencing crashes, but it is expected to prevent issues on processors that aren’t currently impacted by the issue. For now, it is unclear if CPUs exposed to excessive voltage have suffered from invisible degradation or damage that hasn’t resulted in crashes yet but could lead to errors or crashes in the future.

Interestingly, Intel’s official response does nothing to refute Tom’s claims, only saying the number of impacted processors is limited:

Short answer: We can confirm there was a via Oxidation manufacturing issue (addressed back in 2023) but it is not related to the instability issue.

Long answer: We can confirm that the via Oxidation manufacturing issue affected some early Intel Core 13th Gen desktop processors. However, the issue was root caused and addressed with manufacturing improvements and screens in 2023. We have also looked at it from the instability reports on Intel Core 13th Gen desktop processors and the analysis to-date has determined that only a small number of instability reports can be connected to the manufacturing issue.

For the Instability issue, we are delivering a microcode patch which addresses exposure to elevated voltages which is a key element of the Instability issue. We are currently validating the microcode patch to ensure the instability issues for 13th/14th Gen are addressed.

Tom’s says Intel has not issued a recall, and evidently doesn’t plan to. There is some hope, based on the company’s initial revelation about the microcode discovery that Intel may address things on a case-by-case basis.

Intel is committed to making this right with our customers, and we continue asking any customers currently experiencing instability issues on their Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors reach out to Intel Customer Support for further assistance.

The issues with the 13th and 14th Gen processor are the latest in a long line of problems Intel has been facing as it tries to reverse its fortunes under CEO Pat Gelsinger.