MSI responds after reports of 9800X3D processors 'burning' out in its motherboards, but the problem appears to be limited for now

AMD's new Ryzen 7 gaming CPU, the 9800X3D, is about to meltdown. In recent days, AMD's new wonder-chip has been the subject of two reports from gamers who have experienced dramatic "burnouts" on their CPUs. (via Videocardz). Early indications suggest that either a user error or a small manufacturing error is the likely cause.

MSI issued a short statement after receiving a report that both burnouts were caused by the MAG X870 Tomahawk Wi-Fi motherboard. "Recently we received a report indicating damage on an AMD Ryzen(tm), 7 9800X3D CPU on an MSI MAG X870 TOMAHAWK WiFi motherboard. We are committed to the quality and reliability of our products at MSI. We have started an investigation into this incident.

What exactly is happening? Nothing is certain for the moment. Both incidents, reported on Reddit and Quasarrzone forums seem to be very similar. In both cases, it appears that the 9800X3D chips were shorting out. This resulted in burn marks on the bottom and pins of the CPU.

Visual evidence of damage or fracturing to the CPU socket border is perhaps more intriguing. This is evident in both cases to a certain degree and appears to have happened at the same or similar spots on the socket border.

The implication is that the CPU wasn't correctly seated at the time the socket bracket was lowered, causing the CPU to be misaligned. It's easy to imagine that pins and pads may have shorted, resulting in burn marks and damage.

It's not clear, at least for the moment, if this misalignment is due to user error. It's possible. Another possibility is that a bad batch AM5 sockets may have manufacturing errors on the socket border. This would cause the socket to be misaligned.

One Ryzen 7 9800X3D owner commented: "At first I thought I did something wrong, but I found more unnecessary parts not in the socket guide." I've assembled hundreds of thousands of units in my current job but this is the very first time I've seen a guide-injection defect.

If this is the case, other motherboard models or even motherboards from different manufacturers could also be affected. If that were the case, you would expect the problem to affect not only the 9800X3D but also other CPU models.

We'll likely know if there's a large number of bad sockets, as we'll be hearing about similar failures and burnouts. We don't believe that message boards will be inundated with AMD CPUs that have burned out. There's no reason to believe that the problem is limited to the 9800X3D.