AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking • Hacker News Board

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#21

Post by nicolaslem » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:19 AM UTC

sylware wrote: post #14

Ofc it is not voiding the warranty, since I would be not surprise it would blow even if people sincerely did not engage in overclocking.

Similar e-fuses are common for preventing downgrading firmware, especially on consoles. Nintendo was famously running out of e-fuses to blow on the Switch because of the many vulnerabilities the console had.

Point being that these e-fuses don't blow up randomly by themselves.

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#22

Post by m_st » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:31 AM UTC

machinekob wrote: post #11

actionfromafar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me this is actually a reasonable thing for AMD to do. It still leaves me free to do whatever I want with my property.

[flagged]

Apple has (had?) a water sensor in the iPhones to detect that the phone was in water. Didn't break anything, just signaled that there was water contact.

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#23

Post by pjc50 » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:33 AM UTC

throw310822 wrote: post #5

For those who just read the title: the "fuse" doesn't stop the cpu from working, it's just a flag for AMD support to know that the chip has been overclocked and this might invalidate the warranty.

The equivalent of those "warranty void if removed" stickers. Not a problem in and of itself.

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#24

Post by burrish » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:35 AM UTC

I mean... is it really necessary to overclock a AMD Threadripper,

for the price of this new Threadripper ($9,999) I wouldn't take the risk of overclocking it..

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#25

Post by Zetobal » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:35 AM UTC

m_st wrote: post #22

machinekob wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Apple has (had?) a water sensor in the iPhones to detect that the phone was in water. Didn't break anything, just signaled that there was water contact.

I tripped mine when I was in Vietnam... just because of the humidity.

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#26

Post by weberer » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:35 AM UTC

machinekob wrote: post #11

actionfromafar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me this is actually a reasonable thing for AMD to do. It still leaves me free to do whatever I want with my property.

[flagged]

I know Nvidia does the same thing in their Tegra chips. It stops you from downgrading to previous firmware versions on the Nintendo Switch.

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#27

Post by burrish » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:36 AM UTC

signa11 wrote: post #13

apparently it does not void the warranty: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/amd-says-ove...

It does not void the warranty, but the overclocking is permanent and any damage that happens when overclocked isn't managed by the warranty (if I read everything right)

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#28

Post by pankajdoharey » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:37 AM UTC

throw310822 wrote: post #5

For those who just read the title: the "fuse" doesn't stop the cpu from working, it's just a flag for AMD support to know that the chip has been overclocked and this might invalidate the warranty.

Clearly they just want to know the data on failure rate of their process, this affects their real bottom line, Servers and Consoles where reliability is everything. Gaming Computer users are a minority and Custom PC owners are steadily declining.

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#29

Post by jeffparsons » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:39 AM UTC

machinekob wrote: post #11

actionfromafar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me this is actually a reasonable thing for AMD to do. It still leaves me free to do whatever I want with my property.

[flagged]

I kinda assumed that all the above companies would already be doing something similar. I want to live in a world with warranties, so if there's a non-privacy-violating way for companies to protect themselves a little bit from fraudulent warranty claims, why shouldn't they do it?

Re: AMD's New Threadripper Chips Have a Hidden Fuse That Blows When Overclocking

#30

Post by Dalewyn » Thu, Dec 14, 2023, 10:45 AM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #23

throw310822 wrote: post #5

For those who just read the title: the "fuse" doesn't stop the cpu from working, it's just a flag for AMD support to know that the chip has been overclocked and this might invalidate the warranty.

The equivalent of those "warranty void if removed" stickers. Not a problem in and of itself.

The real problem is marketing overclocking as if it's just an everyday common thing to do with little to no thought.