AMD are sending out free processors to fix Ryzen Vega motherboard issues
The mother of all offers (sort of)
AMD's new Ryzen processors with Vega graphics have been causing quite a stir lately. Offering Nvidia GeForce GTX 1030 levels of graphical fidelity without the need for a dedicated card, the Ryzen 3 2200G and Ryzen 5 2400G are quickly becoming the CPU of choice for many budget system builders - at least when US retailer Newegg isn't charging $20 more than AMD's official prices for them anyway.
Now, however, it appears that not all AM4 socket motherboards actually support them out of the box - which is pretty problematic if you've just bought a whole new system and don't have an older AMD processor handy to get your motherboard updated. Fortunately, AMD is on the case, as you can now request a free 'boot kit' from them that will let you do just that.
The problem doesn't extend to all AM4 motherboards, mind, but if you've recently tried installing one of AMD's new Ryzen Vega chips and your PC now refuses to boot, then get thee to AMD's support page and request a boot kit as part of its warranty scheme.
The boot kit consists of a free CPU, the dual-core A6-9500 according to Ars Technica, and a heatsink that will let you perform the BIOS update on your motherboard. Once the update is installed, you should then be able to swap it out for your new Ryzen Vega chip and boot your PC without issue.
I should point out these boot kits are only loans and will need to be returned once the BIOS update has been installed. It's not exactly clear how long the loan period will last, but it certainly beats having to either find an old processor yourself, or trying to ring up the place you originally bought your motherboard from to see if they can help instead.
With any luck, it won't be too long before this kind of update comes pre-installed on all AM4 socket motherboards before they leave the factory. Until that happens, though, anyone with an affected AM4 motherboard will need to use one of the solutions outlined above before they can start using their shiny new chipset.
Still, good on AMD for offering them in the first place. Needless to say, existing AM4 motherboard owners should probably update their BIOS anyway, just in case you do decide to get a Ryzen 3 2200G or Ryzen 5 2400G further down the line and want to save yourself some hassle.