AMD to Issue Ryzen BIOS Updates to Resolve System Hangs

AMD has announced that it has determined what is causing system hangs with some PCs using the Ryzen processor. According to AMD, the issue lies with something in the FMA3 code and while the processor maker has stopped short of saying exactly what in the code is causing the systems to hang, it has said a fix is inbound.

AMD will be issuing BIOS updates to mainboard makers and the changes to the BIOS will fix the system hang issues. If you are having these hang issues with your new Ryzen desktop, check your mainboard makers website for a BIOS update.

AMD told DigitalTrends, “We are aware of select instances where FMA code can result in a system hang. We have identified the root cause.”

The issue with the system hangs happens on all three of the Ryzen processors, the 7 1800X, 7 1700X, and 7 1700. AM4 systems running certain FMA3 workloads with all three processors cause a system hang and the problem was reportedly replicated across all three processors and a variety of mainboards. The issue first reared its head when running the processor benchmark called Flops (V2).

With no version of that benchmark specifically for the Ryzen processor, the Intel Haswell version was used which happens to run the FMA instruction set, which is supported by Ryzen, but the benchmark caused hang issues. However, the system hang weren’t limited to this benchmark alone. Reports indicate that simple apps with basic permissions could cause a system hang.

“Dont be fooled by the Haswell binary,” Alexander Yee, creator of the Flops benchmark, said on HWBOT. “The benchmark is five years old and Ive largely neglected it for the last three. So I havent updated it for Zen yet. Any processor will be able to run any of the binaries if it supports the underlying instruction sets. If it doesnt, the program merely crashes with an ‘illegal instruction.’ Under no circumstances should a user-mode application be able to bring down an entire system.”