There is a confirmed hardware problem affecting 13th and 14th generation Intel Core processors (13xxx and 14xxx series) that manifests as general system instability and causes, among other things, Oodle Data decompression failures and crashes in games built with Unreal.

When starting an Unreal Engine-based game, the most common failure is of this type:

DecompressShader(): Could not decompress shader (GetShaderCompressionFormat=Oodle)

However, this problem does not only affect Oodle, and machines that suffer from this instability will also exhibit failures in standard benchmark and stress test programs. Any programs which heavily use the processor on many threads may cause crashes or unpredictable behavior. There have been crashes seen in Adobe Premiere, RealBench, CineBench, Prime95, Handbrake, Visual Studio, and more. This problem can also show up as a GPU error message, such as spurious "out of video memory" errors, even though it is caused by the CPU.

The root cause is now confirmed by Intel to be rapid aging of clock signal circuitry in the chip due to a confluence of several other issues. This is actual physical wear of the chip itself, and once this deterioration has occurred, it is sadly irreversible. Affected parts need to be replaced; the process is outlined here.

As of this writing (Oct 1, 2024), new BIOS updates are just being released that avoid the operating conditions causing damage to the circuitry. If you are using a pre-built laptop or desktop PC, the vendors are (or at least will be shortly) distributing BIOS updates containing this workaround. It is important to install these updates ASAP before symptoms manifest. Once the crashes start, it's too late for a software solution! If you built your machine yourself, check your motherboard vendor's web site for an updated BIOS image.

This is an updated version of an earlier page. The old, now-obsolete version is archived here.