Intel has announced that it has found the root cause of the crashing issues plaguing its CPUs. The company will issue a microcode update to address the issues by mid-August, ostensibly ending the long-running saga that began when the first sporadic reports of CPU crashing errors surfaced in December 2022 and grew to a crescendo by the end of 2023. Intel's response comes after complaints about the issue, which causes PCs to inexplicably crash/BSOD during gaming and other workloads, reached a fever pitch in recent weeks. However, the microcode update will not repair impacted processors. Intel also confirmed a rumored issue with via oxidation in its 7nm node, but said those issues were corrected in 2023 and didn't contribute to the failures.

Intel's advisory says an erroneous CPU microcode is the root cause of the incessant instability issues. The microcode caused the CPU to request elevated voltage levels, resulting in the processor operating outside its safe boundaries. Intel is now validating a microcode patch to correct the issues, with its release slated for mid-August. This patch will be distributed through BIOS updates from motherboard OEMs and via Windows updates, so the timing for end-user availability could vary. 

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.