CPU Serial Killer – ASRock Boards Continue to Burn Ryzen 9000, This Time Claiming Two 9950X
The situation surrounding ASRock motherboards based on the X870 chipset is taking a truly alarming turn. Well-known tech blogger Brian Bilowol from the Tech YES City channel has reported the death of a second flagship Ryzen 9 9950X processor on the same motherboard model — the ASRock X870 Steel Legend WiFi.
The most concerning aspect here is that the second processor was from a completely different batch, and the motherboard had all the latest fixes and a fresh BIOS installed.
The story began several months ago when Brian's first chip suddenly died during a routine movie viewing session. The system simply stopped outputting a video signal, and characteristic gray spots—signs of thermal damage—were found on the processor's contacts. At the time, many attributed this to immature software or a faulty chip sample.
However, this second case, occurring after 4 months of use, practically eliminates the factor of random chance. The processor simply "went cold" — when the system is powered on, it remains cold to the touch, indicating a complete burnout of the internal power delivery circuitry.
ASRock's attempts to rectify the situation by releasing BIOS version 4.10 based on AGESA microcode 1.3.0.0a appear to have not yielded the desired results.