Yikes! Lenovo is vendor-locking AMD Ryzen CPUs via PSB

Been waiting on this piece since i found that my M75Q Gen2's 4750GE wouldnt work in my ASUS board, but my unlocked Ryzen 6 Pro 4650G would.
I was able to verify that the (edit: Pro) 3400GE from the M75Q Gen1 was able to work without issue on the M75Q Gen2, but it did not work in reverse, which isnt surprizing because the gen1 BIOS probably doesnt include microcode (edit: for the 4650GE)
Also of note, on both the M75Q gen1 and M75Q Gen2, no notification was given if a non PSB processor was installed. my 3400G non Pro just booted right up, it took a few more seconds, but i was not presented with a notification.

I wonder if u can desolder a ps5 chip and put it into a xbox series x motherboard

mate thats literally a feature of ryzen pro
Apparently its so someone can not freeze the cpu in liquid nitrogen..and then put the cpu into another device and steal passwords from the cache

They have the bios chip locked down also so u cant custom bios flash it

Thank you for doing this video here's my suggestion, after 3 years through bios update from vendor, the bios will disable the PSB. This applies to all vendor, I think 3 years is enough for such unit to go into reuse recycle phase.

is this applicable still and for the P910 workstations too?

This is actually pissing me off right now. I am trying to build a server for a home lab using a ASRock Rack ROMED8-2T. You can get "unlocked" used 7302 CPUs for pretty cheap. Problem is that of all 4 CPUs I have tried in the board so far each one is not posting. It has been a huge waste of my time.

I have a question, I've got an ideacentre 5 14acn6, it had a 5600g by default. The motherboard on it uses amd pro 565 chipset, can I put non pro CPUS in it? Are only cpus vendor locked or is this motherboard chipset locked to certain cpus as well?

no matter the bs logic any cpu locking is wrong

well that just sold me on ill NEVER BUY ONE principle of the thing thanks for tell on their dirty bs evil scummy thing to do Lenovo just but your self in the apple box HP and well way to many others

Does HP 705 G4 Mini Ryzen 5 2400g also have such a blockade?

This is NOT new.. This is the whole OEM Based system. The CPU is married to the Lenovo brand.. The OEMs get special pricing from CPU mfgrs for locking into their BIOS brand and not cross contaminate brands with unknown boot security... This is the entire TPM security stuff.... I absolutely agree with Patrick here, and I understand the OEM Locking... Answer is purchase a retail CPU and not an OEM CPU.... A new retail CPU will work with absolutely NO problem.... Follow the money; and it will usually give you a clear, concise answer :-)

what about gpu

It seems like it's possible to disable the psb in a brand new system. Or do those come with psb enabled from the factory?

Remember Lenovo's Super Fish malware? Now they're helping dump millions of CPUs with toxic substances in the environment. Great company, eh?

E-waste in the name of "security" because people are ignorant and dont understand this has zero impact on it and is just to prevent recycling

If you research, Dell EMC also have used this mis-feature. I don't know which series are affected, but it is a really nasty behavior. What security do they achieve when they brick the CPU ? HPE systems didn't use it.

Is that an atx or micro atx or another thing like that?

so if i put the amd pcb lock cpu to other mb, is it the mb power cant even on or there is still sth display on the monitor?

Does this apply to the older M715q too? It comes with the 2200GE and 2400GE iirc.

The PSB is completely BS. The soldered CPU in notebook already did the "secure boot" job for no extra cost. It's just an excuse to lock CPU with certain motherboard, just like Apple to lock its iPhone CPU to the cellphone, then the locking mechanism now includes, the LCD display, the EMMC memory, and the lithium battery.

If in the next few years, AMD announcing the new CPU will have the ultra security features, which locks to specific motherboard, with specific RAM, specific monitor, specific mouse, specific keyboard, specific power supply, specific case, with specific user finger print or face, then locked with specific GPS location, and specific IP address. Please don't feel angry, that's only means we - "the customers should lock our payment to specific recipient with specific purpose to secure our transaction" in return.

Going straight to the point, I'm avoiding AMDZ CPUs since then.

I will have problems selling my stuff, I will have problems buying second hand stuff.

Oooof I wish I knew this an hour ago, I've been eyeballing these systems for a long time because of the size, and I found a Tiny Gen 2 for $260 with ryzen 5 3500ge, and I was planning on upgrading to a 4750ge and selling the 3400ge for $130+, but this changes everything. It's giong to be impossible to sell this since 3400ge is kind of on the low end of processors now. What a waste of time and money.

Imagine the fun when these infiltrate the used CPU market.

I almost bought an amd pro.Thank goodness I did a google search. The idea of locking a CPU to a specific motherboard almost sounds illegal.Your taking different inventions.Combinnig them into one and calling it your own?

Do dell and hp also vedor lock amd cpu's?

Not surprised Lenovo produced a all in one pc that if you replace the hard drive with another brand the all in one would nuke the hard drive and trip there security

If they don't mention this in the sale, I would ask for a refund. tbh

If you payed for it you should be able to use in whatever you like

ahhh lenovo, i love how they do these kinds of things like its a level of incompetence youd expect out of a senile old man rather than a malicious CEO like Dell

Who the hell would buy hp or lenovo?

Well thankfully I saw this, now Levono is not loosing any business as I never intended to buy anything from them anyway, but I was actually considering buying an AMD system next- won't happen, I absolutely despise features like this, if I buy a CPU separately and a motherboard separately it's completely up to me if I want to exchange either part, a system like this is complete bullshit.

Sounds very anti consumer.

Lenovo is certainly at fault here, selling products that is unlabeled or not even inform the user when buying their products. One of two things should help Lenovo should show when their CPU is vendor lock, or two let the user enable it. Though having people enable it isn't a good idea since they may think it's great at first but down the line selling it on ebay or even swapping a motherboard for another and not get a working CPU to replace the motherboard would sting. A 3rd option is for AMD to only enable it for vendor's request though should still fall on the hand of the vendor to specified this chip has PSB.

For enterprise use or commercial use where company are sure they rather destroy a CPU than to selling it because of sensitive info or security then sure, but for average consumers it's just all around bad especially for the less informed buyer.

Lenovo is the company which uses every possible mechanism to lock down components. It's the only company that produces laptop computers that have epoxy glue on all expensive chips like cpu, gpu and memory, and using epoxy glue makes them impossible to remove even for experts that can handle bga replacements. No wonder they immediately used a feature that locks down a socketed cpu that's meant to be replaced. And shame for AMD for providing that feature together with intel with its bootguard. There are clearly various ways to use cheap dedicated components on the motherboard to ensure trusted execution that locks that particular motherboard to its original firmware and prevent modifications. Just build the fuses inside that cheap component. Why would you do that on expesive parts? That's clearly money/e-waste generation.

I think blowing all the fuses is the way to go. Maybe have every CPU with the fuses intact from the factory and let Dell, HP, Lenovo etc. Blow them to suit there system. For second hand market give an option on first boot in a new board to blow them all and unlock it for good. Couldn't be that hard to have some kind of check implemented somewhere for the secure systems to make sure there not blown or have the CPU do it.

This kind of security bullshit has basically made the used Epyc market useless. Sure you can get a ton of CPUs but absolutely no boards from Dell, HP or Lenovo anywhere that I've found. We now have thousands if not tens of thousands of perfectly functional CPUs reduced to nothing more than paper weights. It's disgusting and AMD should've found a better way.

shitovo

One of Lenovo's biggest mistakes

Wifi cable setup not perfectly

Is it only affect the pro version CPU or any Ryzen CPU?

I had never heard of PSB when I bought a used PRO 4750G from HK, luckily it plays fine in my DeskMini A300.

Yeap, reason why my new "tiny" is not a Lenovo.

Total non-issue for me. If I buy 500 or 800 of these machines, I plan on using them for a specific purpose for 4 years. In an enterprise environment, this seems fine, but if you are buying one or two and wanting to modify them for personal use, then I see a potential issue.

they'll never have me as a customer.

Apple seems to be more consumer friendly in this department, you could always upgrade CPUs of Intel iMacs.

Reminds me about the processor serial number saga. This, however, is much more diabolical.

HP sucks

1. E-waste. 2. CPU's have serials, right? So why not lock the motherboard and/or OS to the CPU serial? Way the hell better than bricking a CPU.

Somebody got a subsidy for crippling these systems in this manner. I don't know if it was AMD giving a discount to Lenovo for crippling the secondhand market or what, but this definitely plays like some of the older anti-consumer behavior made famous by Apple.

Bought a M75Q Gen2 for a customer in Germany. Same here, vendor locked. What a garbage.