AMD will lend you an older processor to update your BIOS to support a Ryzen APU

AMD's new Ryzen 3 2200G and especially its Ryzen 5 2400G are compelling options for anyone looking to build a low budget gaming PC. The only catch is that not all AM4 motherboards support the chips out of the box. To get around this, AMD is offering free 'boot kits' on loan so users can flash their motherboard's BIOS to support the new APUs.

Not everyone building a system around one of these chips will run into a situation where a boot kit is needed. In some cases, it is possible to update the BIOS without a CPU. However, that isn't always the case with budget boards, which are obvious candidates for one of the new chips.

If you happen to own an AM4 motherboard that will not boot or allow you to update the BIOS to support the Ryzen 3 2200G or Ryzen 5 2400G, you can request a boot kit from AMD. These kits consists of older Bristol Ridge APUs—a dual-core A6-9500, according to Arstechnica.

The boot kit is part of AMD's warranty service. To request one, you have to visit AMD's warranty claims page and fill in your contact and product details. In the problem description field, AMD asks that you write "Boot kit Required" (minus the quotes).

An A6-9500 costs around $60. AMD isn't just giving these things away—it's only intended to be used long enough to flash your BIOS, and once you swap it out for one of the new Ryzen APUs, AMD wants the older chip back. Interestingly, AMD only wants the actual processor back, and not the heatsink that it ships with.

It's not clear how long the loaner period lasts, but this is a neat thing that AMD is doing, as usually users are left on their own to update BIOS to support newer chips.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).