According to Notebookcheck, after Chiwei, the A15 Pro model of the domestic notebook brand Ninkear was also found to have a fake CPU. It also used the Ryzen 5 5500U to fake the Ryzen 5 7430U, and the method was exactly the same. NotebookCheck stated that last year they received a sample of the A15 Pro notebook sent for testing by Ninkear, and the sample sent for testing at that time was the Ryzen 5 7430U.
After receiving feedback, they recently purchased a Ninkear A15 Pro from the market, but found the same phenomenon as Chuwi: the BIOS and system showed Ryzen 5 7430U, but when they disassembled the machine, they saw that the CPU number was 100-0000000375, which is obviously a Ryzen 5 5500U.
Further in-depth investigation revealed that other notebook computer brands were also involved in counterfeiting, and the methods were exactly the same. All products came from the same ODM foundry: Shenzhen Yidao Information Co., Ltd.
The same sample machine and the initial batch are normal. Later batches secretly used Ryzen 5 5500U to fake Ryzen 5 7430U. There is a high probability that Chuwi is actually one of the victims.
ODM means that the product development, design, and production of notebook computers are all handled by the OEM. Second- and third-tier notebook computer brands will even ship directly to customers through ODM, so the ODM manufacturer will not know about the secret brand change.
The author of CPU-Z pointed out that the counterfeiting method is to overwrite the processor name string (PNS) at the BIOS level through the MSR register of AMD CPU. Since Windows and most software directly read this string, and the specifications of 5500U and 7430U are similar, it is extremely difficult for users to detect it.
In this regard, Ninkear said that in line with its responsibility commitment to dealers and users, it has launched an investigation into the affected product batches with relevant ODM manufacturers.
