A curious Reddit put up exhibiting a burned-out AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D might have new AMD CPU homeowners involved. Questions have been requested about whether or not the motherboard or CPU itself is defective, but it surely appears to be like prefer it could possibly be all the way down to a easy consumer error, fairly than a extra severe design downside.
A worst-case state of affairs for AMD can be a wider fault with its model new chip, which is already the perfect gaming CPU you should buy. That would definitely put a spring within the steps of Intel, which itself has confronted a horrible disaster with voltage fluctuations in its Raptor Lake CPUs, resulting in recreation crashes and even broken CPUs. Nonetheless, the bodily proof of this burned 9800X3D doesn’t level to a flawed design that wants fixing on this case, as we’ll clarify.
Within the Reddit put up in query within the r/pcmasterrace subreddit, the uniquely named consumer “TrumpPooPoosPants” shared some footage of the burned 9800X3D and MSI Magazine X870 Tomahawk motherboard into which it was put in. Additional within the feedback, the Redditor defined that the motherboard did not POST with a “00” error code, though given the state of the CPU, an pointless one, with the CPU itself having apparent indicators of fireside harm.
Whereas a CPU defect can’t completely be dominated out, a deeper have a look at a number of the different pictures shared by the consumer additional down the thread exhibits a extra possible trigger. As a number of different Redditors have identified, there’s substantial harm to the plastic across the socket, as you’ll be able to see within the above picture, which makes it look as if the CPU has been compelled into the socket barely crookedly, and even the wrong way up.
This could have damaged the socket when the stress from the lever was put in place, once more inflicting a misalignment with the pins on the motherboard and the pads on the CPU. This additionally corresponds with the image under, the place you’ll be able to see that the CPU socket cowl has a big bulge in it, presumably after having been compelled into place over a CPU that wasn’t correctly sitting within the socket.
One convincing believable clarification from one other Redditor within the thread is that, after attempting to lock the CPU into the socket for the primary time and failing, the CPU grew to become misaligned. Making an attempt to lock it once more, with the CPU not appropriately in place, would trigger harm to the pins and the socket stage mechanism. As soon as the PC was turned on, the CPU wasn’t lined up appropriately with the socket pins, after which it was recreation over.
It’s not all unhealthy information for Mr. Pants, nevertheless. Stephen Burke, the PC {hardware} YouTuber behind the Avid gamers Nexus channel, has already jumped in, providing to purchase the burned-out 9800X3D for his personal evaluation, with the Redditor already accepting. It will keep away from a prolonged RMA course of, however may even give Avid gamers Nexus the prospect to look into the trigger behind this incident, if one might be recognized.
We’ll be retaining a detailed eye on whether or not this actually was only a fault attributable to one-off unhealthy elements, a nasty set up, or whether or not there’s a deeper trigger behind it. For now, take a look at our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D assessment for our ideas on the brand new AMD flagship, which has stomped everywhere in the Intel Arrow Lake lineup with its superior gaming efficiency.