Doesn’t have to be for a specific branch, over the years I’ve seen different models of the same CPU family freak out over how things are coded on one model and be entirely sane on another model in that same family. You may be right, but if what you are saying is true. . . the ‘uptick of Error 132’ that Blizzard’s own team are reporting would not be recent. The reports would be statistically static (meaning no rise or fall in the number of reports). This post below however clearly states that there has been an increase in frequency in reports of Error 132. . . likely from their own internal reporting tools and/or from bug reports/posts. . .etc. .
An uptick in reports is a very strong indicator that something changed recently that has had an adverse reaction. Now. . I am making the assumption that the statement of multiple games is in reference to the reports of WoW Retail and OW2 crashing. In that case. . the likely culprit . . a recent software update ‘somewhere’ because that is the variable in this equation with the largest likelyhood of change. I would guess that they had a minor library framework update somewhere that shipped with the November updates. . and it slightly changed how some of the instruction sets are handled. . and they’ve stumbled upon a use case in live that their internal test cases and QA didn’t cover and capture.
As far as BIOS versions go. . . using the Alienware Aurora R15 crowd as an example. . version 1.6.0 of the BIOS that most of us are running? Came out on Sept 12th. So even that is a fairly static variable, given the timing of the Error 132 reports here. Hardware is actually likely the stable variable in this equation.
The reports in these 2 threads seem to say stability hasn’t been an issue until 10.2 for WoW Retail . . I’m not sure about OW2 I’d have to go look.
So if the hardware is fairly static and was stable prior to November software changes. . and not stable after. . . How is that a BIOS/Hardware issue?
(I know my system has been exactly the same since I installed the Sept 12 BIOS, and I would bet at least some of the others that are seeing this issue are in a similar situation)
BIOS/Hardware issues are systemic. . .meaning they impact every aspect of the system. . including everything that runs on that system. In my case, that’s just not happening. It’s just WoW Retail. . .and for me it just started this week, and I think others are having this exact experience.
So, If WoW Retail (and OW2 for those that play it) is/are the only thing(s) crashing on the user’s system then, just the opposite is likely true. . it points to a software issue not a hardware issue. On my system I have 21+ games installed including D4. . and WoW Retail is the only one doing this.
I don’t think that every Intel 13th gen CPU user is running things at their ragged edge, or constantly tweaking stuff. . I concede that some likely are and they may be doing things that are causing issues. . but I can speak for myself in saying that’s not the case here, and it’s likely the same at least for some of the others having this issue as well.
Is this issue fixable by a BIOS update? Maybe . . time will tell. . . but the circumstances really do point to they changed how they are doing something in their recent update that was missed by test cases and QA.