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ASRock has garnered borderline notoriety status because its motherboards keep killing off Ryzen 9000 processors. Throughout the year, we've seen various reports stemming from the r/ASRock subreddit detailing CPU after CPU hitting permanent sleep mode, with the company performing damage control to the best of its abilities. At least, up until now, the issue was largely reserved for X3D chips; now, one unlucky user reports that their ASRock motherboard killed off not one, not two, but three separate regular AMD CPUs.
User "OnOr" on the popular South Korean forum QuasarZone aired out their grievances after three Ryzen 7 9700X CPUs were all fried by their ASRock B850 Pro RS motherboard one by one. The first two 9700X chips were bought from AliExpress, and both failed in a row. The owner sent their motherboard in for service, reasonably suspecting a motherboard fault, but local retailer Compuzone (through ASRock) deemed it faultless, so the journey continued.
The victim then purchased a third 9700X, this time from an official distributor in South Korea to ensure the chips weren't dodgy, and guess what? It failed as well. That's an impressive kill streak for just one motherboard that was seemingly fine when diagnosed earlier. The user has since sent the dead 9700X and the ASRock B850 Pro RS to Compuzone, awaiting instructions on next steps.
This incident adds to the ever-increasing line of issues with ASRock's AM5 motherboard running Ryzen 9000 series processors. Other manufacturers aren't without issues, but Gamers Nexus has previously reported that over 80% of the complaints stem from ASRock, clearly isolating the brand from the rest. ASRock has so far largely denied responsibility outside of indirect statements, even initially pointing fingers at AMD, which just pointed them back.
ASRock released BIOS version 3.40 a few months ago to potentially address these issues, mentioning CPU stability and the like throughout the changelog, subtly hinting at the processor frying debacle without admitting anything, but it seems like that wasn't enough. Our victim always kept their BIOS updated, never overclocked or touched EXPO, and even said the board was running version 3.40 when issues started to occur.
There were no photos shared of this massacre, so we can't speculate much on what happened, but the pattern is quite clear. The Ryzen 7 9700X launched at $359 worldwide but can be had for a little less than that in Korea at the moment, meaning the victim has lost roughly $1,000 worth of CPUs in the span of a few months. ASRock has extended motherboard warranties in Japan, but that offer doesn't extend around the globe, which could imply a fourth CPU is for our OP. Hopefully, the RMA process comes in clutch and helps out before that.
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