Overclocking Your Ryzen 7000 Series Processor May Lead to Damage
We do not recommend overclocking your processor and generally suggest getting a chip more suited for your task if the one you’re looking at would need to be overclocked.
None the less, consumers often do overclock their CPU’s. This may prove to be a bad idea as there have now been a few cases of Ryzen 7000 series processors overheating and burning out in recent weeks when overclocking is attempted.
The core problem with the overheating of the CPU’s lies in the SoC(System-on-a-Chip) voltages being increased to unsafe levels. This is done either by pre-set voltages in EXPO memory overclocking profiles or by the user manually adjusting the voltage. This then results in the chips’ thermal sensors and protection mechanisms failing – causing overheating and damage to the processor.
AMD has released a patch – AGESA ComboAM5 1.0.7.0 to fix the burnout issue although, this is not the only problem being addressed. The patch now sets a forced limit to the SOC voltage of 1.3V and includes bug fixed for the temperature control system to prevent further burnouts.
AMD isn’t being very specific, but there were apparently optimisation issues surrounding the temperature control system which caused the chip to operate incorrectly when hitting max operating temperature. It’s possible this bug, in conjunction with the manually set voltages, led to the burnouts experienced by some users.
Knowing all this, its probably a good time to update your motherboard firmware with AMD’s AGESA ComboAM5 patch 1.0.7.0.
AMD does not cover any damage done to a processor during overclocking under their warranties. Even if you don’t overclock your processor, its probably still a good idea to do the firmware update as we don’t have many details on what bugs were found or when they might rear their ugly heads.
Most motherboard manufactures will have instructions or guides on how to update your motherboards firmware on their websites, just be careful as you can brick a computer if done incorrectly.
