AMD processors have an unfortunate feature: the PSB security technology that makes it possible to lock a CPU so that it cannot be used in any motherboard other than the one that locked it with its key. This typically makes a CPU unable to boot anywhere else and this lock is irreversible. It used to affect just server processors, Threadripper and Ryzen Pro chips, but beware: Dell is apparently locking CPUs in gaming PCs as well.
This is happening with Alienware-branded gaming computers, which was once a standalone brand but has long been part of the well-known Dell (the world’s third-largest PC maker after Lenovo and HP). A user on Reddit with an Alienware Area-51 computer equipped with a GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card and a Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor drew attention to the fact that Dell has started using this practice (so-called “vendor lock”) for this gaming line of PCs. His processor does not work when he tries to install it in other motherboards, and the user had it confirmed at a service center that it is locked.
It seems that several users have already run into problems with Alienware computers, including one who, to test functionality, installed a different processor (a Ryzen 9 9800X3D) than the one supplied by Dell in the computer, and the computer’s board locked this new processor as well and essentially ruined it. This does not appear to be a new development either; older reports of locked Ryzen processors can also be found in connection with this brand’s Aurora R10 computers, but knowledge of this problem has apparently not yet entered general awareness.
You should therefore be very careful with Alienware PCs. Personally, I would recommend avoiding the purchase of computers that vendor lock processors like this altogether, if you can. And when buying a PC from major OEM makers, try to find out whether the models in question perform vendor lock on Ryzen processors.
Huge Problem for the Second Life of Hardware on the Used Market
You can typically run into the problem of locked processors when buying a used Ryzen Pro processor that was removed from an OEM computer from a brand such as HP or Lenovo. These computers have their UEFI firmware configured to lock Ryzen Pro processors installed, which sellers that put such chip or sale often aren’t aware off, and a problem arises when the sold processor does not work when the new owner installs it in a different board. Such a CPU appears dead, even though it would start up if installed back in an OEM computer of the given brand and the specific correct type. Server makers also frequently lock Epyc processors, and Lenovo is known to lock Threadripper Pro processors in its workstations.
This is a big problem and a strong negative for long-term usability of processors after the original computer stops working or is upgraded. In normal circumstances, scrapped PCs can be harvested for parts that can be useful in used hardware marked, which is a beneficial thing, making computers more affordable and more environmentally friendly and sustainable. A locked CPUs are likely to end up as electronic waste instead. To make the situation even worse, the boards of these computers unfortunately lock any processor you install in them as an upgrade, as well.
Motherboards bricking processors though this vendor locking had not been known to be common with Ryzen processors outside the Pro line, let alone gaming X3D models, so far. Unfortunately, this practice means that now we will have to worry about consumer processors being vendor locked and thus largely unusable as well, when buying second-hand. Until now, buying used processors was a good way for gamers to save money, because apart from chips damaged by overclocking, CPUs were typically a very reliable component that was relatively rare to break compared with, say, motherboards, HDDs or SSDs, or graphics cards. Unfortunately, processor locking will now increasingly infest the used market with bricked hardware that is difficult to identify.
Source: Reddit
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
