Intel accused of fraud with defective chips

Intel accused of fraud with defective chips

The 2022 and 2023 Raptor Lake processors are allegedly defective, according to a compliant. There is even alleged fraud.

The allegations could lead to a class-action lawsuit, with a group of consumers collectively filing a lawsuit. The initiative was taken by plaintiff Mark Vanvalkenburgh, who purchased an Intel Core i7-13700K in early 2023. “After purchasing the product, Plaintiff learned that the processor was defective, unstable, and crashing at high rates,” the official lawsuit reads.

According to Vanvalkenburgh, the processor caused problems with his computer. The monitor failed at various times, and the computer was randomly restarted. Even after installing a patch for the processor, the problems persisted.

The suit states that Intel knew about the defects as early as late 2022 or early 2023. “Intel’s Products undergo pre-release and post-release testing. Through these tests, Intel became aware of the defect in the processors,” Vanvalkenburgh said. During the same period, however, Intel claimed the chips offered fast and powerful performance without mentioning the defects. According to the prosecutor, concealing this information is a form of fraud. In doing so, the chip company allegedly violated U.S. law.

Intel’s response

Intel acknowledged in the middle of this year that the processors had problems. “Based on extensive analysis of Intel Core 13th/14th Gen desktop processors returned to us due to instability issues, we have determined that elevated operating voltage is causing instability issues in some 13th/14th Gen desktop processors,” Intel said in a forum post. “Our analysis of returned processors confirms that the elevated operating voltage is stemming from a microcode algorithm resulting in incorrect voltage requests to the processor.”

This year, Intel released three patches to address the problem and introduced an additional two-year warranty period. Intel has not yet responded to the claim and possible class-action lawsuit.

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