ASRock Releases AM5 Motherboard BIOS Fix For Ryzen 9000 Frying Issue

It's not clear how widespread this issue actually is, but some users—and not just crazy overclockers—have definitely experienced a problem where AMD CPUs fail in spectacular fashion, scorching the bottom of the CPU package and the socket it was in. Initially, it was Gigabyte and ASUS motherboards known to have this problem, but it's also been observed on MSI, and most frequently, ASRock motherboards, too.

ASRock has already shipped multiple BIOS updates to address this problem, even though it says that AMD is really the one at fault. AMD, for its part, disagrees, although to us it sounds more like poor communication between the companies. In any case, if you were still leery of ASRock motherboards due to this issue, you might be able to rest more easily with the latest BIOS updates from ASRock.


The latest update, which ASRock calls "BIOS version 3.40", apparently brings several changes to improve both memory compatibility and system stability. ASRock doesn't mention the "burning CPU" issue, of course, but early on in this saga, when before the Ryzen 9000 processors were released, it was found that EXPO profiles and high DDR and SoC voltage were to blame for the problem. ASRock's latest BIOS adjusts VDDCR_SOC default voltage downward, which feels like a tacit admission.

According to user reports, ASRock's latest BIOS updates also fix SoC Load Line Calibration at "Level 3" instead of Auto, potentially reducing the risk of dangerous voltage spikes. We do feel that these "CPU burning" issues are exceptionally rare, but nevertheless they shouldn't really be happening at all. Still, it's arguably less concerning than the Intel Vmin Shift instability issue that afflicts 13th and 14th-generation Core CPUs. That's at least one reason to buy Arrow Lake instead of Raptor Lake if you're going Intel.

You can find the relevant BIOS updates for your motherboard by googling the model name (e.g. ASRock X870E Nova Wifi), going to the product page, clicking "Support", and then "BIOS". It seems like not every ASRock AM5 motherboard has the update yet, but from checking around it seems that all of the X870E boards should be updated, at least. Hopefully ASRock brings the update to its other AM5 boards soon.