Intel has announced that it will be extending warranty support for boxed Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processors by two years, in its ongoing attempts to minimise the fallout from the ongoing crashing issues affecting its Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs.
In a post on the Intel community forums, the company encourages those who have experienced "instability symptoms" in prebuilt machines to contact the system manufacturer's support team, while those who've purchased boxed CPUs should reach out to Intel Customer Support for further assistance.
Given that a law firm has been investigating the possibility of a class action lawsuit against Intel for the ongoing CPU instability issues, a warranty extension may well invalidate or waylay those potential legal repercussions as things stand.
However, Reddit user jerubedo has written a post detailing their experiences with Intel's current RMA procedure, and for them, it's been an exercise in frustration. They attempted to RMA two Core i9 14900Ks, one bought from Amazon and the other from Microcenter as brand-new chips.
According to the Redditor, Intel has claimed that both products were potentially not genuine CPUs. For the Microcenter-bought chip, jerubedo filled out an RMA form and provided shipping details and proof of purchase, along with pictures of the IHS, only for Intel to claim that the CPU was a re-marked unit, despite jerubedo's claim that the chip was bought in a sealed box directly from the shelf.
While Intel's remarks were disputed and further photos were provided that showed that the serial number and batch number on the box matched the faulty CPU, and were reported as valid on Intel's warranty checker tool, they claim that Intel told them to return the CPU to Microcenter instead.
Eventually, after further back and forth with Intel, Microcenter accepted the chip in return for store credit.
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Intel has denied two of my 14900K RMAs (instability) and stated they will confiscate or destroy them if I proceed with the warranty process. from r/hardware
For the second, Amazon-purchased chip, the Redditor claims that Intel quoted the wrong serial number back to them, and told them that the CPU in question was a tray processor and not subject to retail warranty. After contacting Intel with clearer photos of the serial number, Intel confirmed that the CPU was a retail unit and that they could proceed with the RMA, but with the following caveat:
"However,we are not fully convinced that it will pass the incoming fraud inspection at our depot. We strongly recommend that you return the product to your place of purchase."
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"Please familiarize yourself with the Processor Warranty Terms and Conditions, as well as the warning at the bottom of the warranty information page:IntelWarranty Info.
Specifically, "Please be advised as part of Intel's ongoing efforts to prevent fraud in the marketplace, in the event the product you submit for warranty support is found to be re-marked or otherwise fraudulent product, Intel reserves the rights to retain the product and/or destroy such product as appropriate."
At this point, jerubedo contacted Amazon to inform them of the situation. It accepted the CPU for return, despite the chip in question being nine months outside of its return window.
So, while Intel is encouraging affected chip users to engage with customer support to RMA their affected chips, it seems like the process can be far from straightforward as things stand.
If your CPU has been affected by stability and crashing issues it's still the right move to engage with Intel first, of course, but if this experience is anything to go by, it may be worth contacting the retailer you purchased it from as well to see if they can resolve the situation more effectively.
Andy Edser
Hardware Writer
Andy built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 12, when IDE cables were a thing and high resolution wasn't. After spending over 15 years in the production industry overseeing a variety of live and recorded projects, he started writing his own PC hardware blog in the hope that people might send him things. And they did! Now working as a hardware writer for PC Gamer, Andy's been jumping around the world attending product launches and trade shows, all the while reviewing every bit of PC hardware he can get his hands on. You name it, if it's interesting hardware he'll write words about it, with opinions and everything.
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