Chipmaker Intel Corp. says it has finally identified the cause of the widespread instability issues that have plagued its 13th and 14th Gen Core processors.

In an update posted today, the company said its central processing units are suffering from a problem related to “elevated operating voltage” and, most importantly, revealed that a fix – for some of its chips – is on the way.

Intel is planning to issue a “microcode update” to the affected chips by mid-August. It said the incoming patch will finally resolve problems that date back to December 2023, when sporadic reports of its CPUs crashing during games and other workloads first emerged.

In recent weeks, those reports had grown to become a major headache for Intel, with numerous complaints posted online over the company’s apparent inability to address the issue, which causes personal computers to inexplicably crash. The chipmaker first confirmed it was investigating the issue in April after receiving reports from Intel Core i9-13900K and i9-14900K owners experiencing frequent game crashes.

In its advisory, Intel said it has discovered that “erroneous CPU microcode” is the root cause of the problem, resulting in its CPUs requesting elevated voltage levels that go beyond their safety limits, leading to the sudden crashes. The chipmaker said it’s now busy validating a microcode patch that will correct this problem. It plans to distribute the fix via a Basic Input/Output System or BIOS update that will be issued by motherboard original equipment manufacturers, so the exact timing of the patch will likely differ for various users.

Unfortunately for Intel’s customers, the patch won’t do much to address those CPUs that have already suffered from crashes. As noted by Paul Alcorn in Tom’s Hardware, the fault had the impact of permanently degrading those chips, and the hardware cannot be fixed via a software update. The upcoming patch is more of a preventive measure, stopping CPUs that haven’t yet started crashing as a result of the issue from doing so.

One thing that isn’t clear is if the patch will help those CPUs which may have already been exposed to excessive voltage, but have not degraded to the point of crashing just yet.

Intel said in its advisory that customers should seek help from its official support channels. Because the patch doesn’t repair impacted processors, those whose CPU has effectively been burnt out can contact the company and obtain a replacement free of charge.

Previously, Intel had advised customers to follow the basic power guidelines for its chips in order to prevent the problem, instead of trying to run them at fully unlocked settings. However, the ongoing reports of CPU crashes suggests those guidelines were not particularly helpful, and Intel has come under intense pressure to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

Last week, “Path of Titans” developer Alderon Games Inc. posted a video on YouTube showing “thousands” of crashes that hit players who were using Intel’s 13th and 14th Gen CPUs, in what seemed to be an effort to shame the company into doing something. A second video by Gamers Nexus stated that it “can’t recommend Intel” right now as a result of the problems plaguing its chips.

Intel told Tom’s Hardware that the microcode patch has been tested extensively and doesn’t show any adverse impact on the affected CPUs’ performance, but those tests have not yet concluded. The company will likely share more information about any possible performance impact when the patch is released.

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