Ever had faulty CPU launches?

[Rroff]

It's physically impossible to build your own Ryzen motherboard today because they're too complicated.

That sounds like a challenge...

One of the problems though with building a motherboard for a desktop PC today is that a lot of the microprocessor controllers aren't available to DIYers, etc. you need a commercial license and/or minimum order quantities agreement (which usually runs into multiples of like 5000) not to mention soldering stuff like BGA and QFN by hand even if you have a hot air station.

I've built most of the integrated systems on motherboards on prototype board at one time or another for instance this is what you'd have for integrated sound:

Spoiler

(Normally a lot of those components would be SMD, etc.)

 

[Disco_P]

A more recent example Destiny 2 didn't work on Ryzen CPUs for a while cause of a weird unsupported RNG.

I'd call Bulldozer faulty too but for other reasons

 

[LePhuronn]

Have you ever seen anything like that on a CPU release?

What, the entirety of Intel's Skylake architecture and its derivatives? /bait
And AMD's Bulldozer /baitcancel

 

[clv101]

Read up on the FDIV bug.

Yep, I had once of those Pentium 60 chips. You could do a simple calculation in Excel and get the wrong answer. Never noticed any problems unless I went specifically looking for them.

 

[Justintime]

I'd call Bulldozer faulty too but for other reasons

Funny i thought of mentioning that too, same with Williamette and Prescott

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

AMD's original Phenom release had the TLB bug. Aside from that, can't remember any major CPU launch issues.
Was there a Sandybridge launch motherboard chipset that had a 'major' issue? Seem to remember that (B2 revision boards needed).

 

[Gray2233]

And the might of a graphite pencil - one of the few CPUs i've kept (i killed the temperamental ABIT MB - drove me to my limits).

I ran a highly overclocked Duron thanks to the pencil trick back in the day, stupidly good performance for the money at the time.

I still miss my Epox KT7 (I think it was a KT7 at least), so many great companies that are no longer around!

 

[five8five]

Mid 90s, a friend built AMD machines as a cheaper alternative to Intel. Unfortunately they had major compatibility issues and he said he'd never touch AMD again. Trying to remember the actual processor series......

 

[Shaolin Chicken]

I ran a highly overclocked Duron thanks to the pencil trick back in the day, stupidly good performance for the money at the time.

I still miss my Epox KT7 (I think it was a KT7 at least), so many great companies that are no longer around!

I remember Epox, can't remember the name of the motherboard though I had though.
Like you say many companies fallen by the wayside.

 

[Justintime]

AMD's original Phenom release had the TLB bug. Aside from that, can't remember any major CPU launch issues.
Was there a Sandybridge launch motherboard chipset that had a 'major' issue? Seem to remember that (B2 revision boards needed).

B3 revision needed. SATA 3 ports could degrade over time. Funnily enough i had 2 P67 boards where the Sata 3 ports died randomly after showing many disconnects in the log and both were 'B3' boards so maybe some boards were labelled falsely or the bug still occurred at a much lower rate.

 

[Justintime]

Mid 90s, a friend built AMD machines as a cheaper alternative to Intel. Unfortunately they had major compatibility issues and he said he'd never touch AMD again. Trying to remember the actual processor series......

I'd say this was mainly due to the manufacturers and Bios makers not optimizing for AMD and general flexibility to run different brands on the same board was more limited as well, had this a few times but find the right board and cpu combo it was gold!If it was the mid 90s it was likely a K5 incompatibility problem. Too bad he missed out on the golden years of K7 and K8 and the extreme value years of K6-3 and K63+ etc..Zen ain't doing to shabbily either

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

B3 revision needed.

That's the one! Whilst it's not a CPU issue, it's a good example of problems that can go along with them. Remember that one being a bit of a mess at the time.

 

[Rroff]

Lot of nForce 600 and 700 series boards would degrade over time - DIMM sockets stop working, North Bridge BGA lose reliable contact with the board due to flexing and/or become unstable due to electromigration type effect (hence why some of them had a very noisy fan on them to try and drag out more lifespan), SATA controllers degrading, etc.

 

[Rofflay]

Lot of nForce 600 and 700 series boards would degrade over time - DIMM sockets stop working, North Bridge BGA lose reliable contact with the board due to flexing and/or become unstable due to electromigration type effect (hence why some of them had a very noisy fan on them to try and drag out more lifespan), SATA controllers degrading, etc.

I remember the NF 700 and Northbridge burning my hand they were passive i think or maybe that was the one that the fan failed on mine and it killed it. I remember having one the sound system on that the Dolby Digital live was dowright amazing in decoding stereo to Dolby 5.1 and it was sent via optical cable from the motherboard.

 

[Rroff]

nForce boards had some quality sound, even the later ones where they didn't push out the boat as much.

They had a lot of good features but also a lot of issues for instance on most brands, other than Gigabyte who somehow solved it on their boards, there was a bug where opening a folder full of video files with preview thumbnails enabled had a random chance of causing a BSOD due to some chipset bug. (Think it was solved on the 790 boards but 680, 750 and 780 were plagued by it).