Intel Identifies Chipset Design Error, Implementing Solution

[skier]

meh, I wonder if i pay shipping I can get a few RMA'd boards that have the problem haha

so the two slowest parts of the computer get slightly slower over time than they already do, I couldn't care less.

[mezcal]

No material insider information leaking here, right?
Just another day in the US markets...

[situman]

Let me get this straight, they knew about the problem, designed a fix AND THEN tell everyone there's a problem? The right thing to do is halt shipment and sales at the point of discovery, not at the point of fix implementation. I smell class action lawsuit.

[FM_Jarnis]

Wow...I guess I'm royally screwed then. My board came with October BIOS, 0408. means there's a really high chance my board is nubbed.

I wonder why people think there are "good" and "bad" boards out there or that somehow some of the early boards are unaffected.

Of course not.

Every shipped Sandy Bridge board is bad - it is a chipset design issue. The first fixed chipset hasn't yet rolled out of the production line (and will not do so for some weeks).

The issue affected only "some" of the boards/chipsets shipped in Q4 because most of the shipped hardware was old tech (LGA1156 etc.). Only a fraction of the chipset shipments in Q4 were for Series 6 chipsets. The statements about only boards shipped after Jan 9th reflect the fact that no sandy boards should have been in end user hands before that date - of course this does not reflect the reality, but that doesn't mean any boards before that date are somehow fine - they are not.

Luckily only SATA ports 2-5 appear to have the issue so if you stick to the two 6GB ports (0-1) and/or any non-intel-chipset ports (on boards that have separate Marvell chip for extra SATA ports), you can work around the problem.

[dany74q]

Further analysis at Anand.

[Kobaltrock]

Let me get this straight, they knew about the problem, designed a fix AND THEN tell everyone there's a problem? The right thing to do is halt shipment and sales at the point of discovery, not at the point of fix implementation. I smell class action lawsuit.

You would think that all e-tailers would stop selling the boards as well, but this is obviously not the case... Same with the B&M stores.

[FM_Jarnis]

You would think that all e-tailers would stop selling the boards as well, but this is obviously not the case... Same with the B&M stores.

The news has been out for a couple of hours. They just can't react that fast and probably won't do jack until mobo manufacturers weigh in. Given that it is night in Taiwan, I would imagine some of those guys will have a rude wakeup tomorrow morning...

My prediction; All Series 6 boards just magically go out of stock within the next 48h or so if mobo manufacturers decide that they will recall all unsold boards. Who knows, they might continue to sell them with big red letters on top "do not use SATA ports 2-5".

[NEOAethyr]

Wow that would suck.

For people that have these, I think alot of them would like to see pics of the top of the chipset, of the old and the new.
To see how you can tell which rev of the chipset you got.

Otherwise I think the best option is to use a 3rd party pcie sata controller.
I think it's kind of a disaster when you have no good hd ports onboard...

Get yourselves a new sata controller card I guess :|.

Otherwise if you return the board, without knowing how to check to see if your board is affected or not, how are you gonna know that they actually replaced the board with one that has the newer rev of the chipset?

You can't blindy say that oh, I bought mine after this or that date, it's fine, yeah right...
Better look at the chip lol, then again that might void warrenty :\.

[duploxxx]

I wonder why people think there are "good" and "bad" boards out there or that somehow some of the early boards are unaffected.

Of course not.

Every shipped Sandy Bridge board is bad - it is a chipset design issue. The first fixed chipset hasn't yet rolled out of the production line (and will not do so for some weeks).

The issue affected only "some" of the boards/chipsets shipped in Q4 because most of the shipped hardware was old tech (LGA1156 etc.). Only a fraction of the chipset shipments in Q4 were for Series 6 chipsets. The statements about only boards shipped after Jan 9th reflect the fact that no sandy boards should have been in end user hands before that date - of course this does not reflect the reality, but that doesn't mean any boards before that date are somehow fine - they are not.

Luckily only SATA ports 2-5 appear to have the issue so if you stick to the two 6GB ports (0-1) and/or any non-intel-chipset ports (on boards that have separate Marvell chip for extra SATA ports), you can work around the problem.

Duh, you might want to check the amount of chipsets and cpu Intel deliveres to OEM and board makers before they actually launch a product, exactly why Intel is so big is because of the volumes. Check the expected costs:

Intel will begin shipping the fixed version of the chipset in late February. The recall will reduce Intel's revenue by around $300 million and cost around $700 million to completely repair and replace affected systems.

now we know why DR Who is so silent these days, he and his team is 24h soldering chipsets

[zalbard]

Intel expects that over 3 years of use it would see a failure rate of approximately 5 - 15% depending on usage model.

Not all of the boards will fail, it seems. Still, that's quite a lot.
That's complete failure, I guess... And slow-downs for every single one?

[Kobaltrock]

Wow that would suck.

For people that have these, I think alot of them would like to see pics of the top of the chipset, of the old and the new.
To see how you can tell which rev of the chipset you got.

What do you mean, there are ALL bad, since it is a design flaw...

[accord99]

So what happens when the motherboard gets swapped to a new version, will I have to reinstall Windows 7 and all the other SW, or can I just plug in the harddrive with the OS on and it will work?

You may need to reactivate. I went from a P35 MB to a P67 on the same Windows 7 install with otherwise no problems except a few missing unimportant drivers.

[NEOAethyr]

What do you mean, there are ALL bad, since it is a design flaw...

What I mean is to see the new and the old side by side, once the new chip comes out, the people with the old ones could check to make sure.
Same goes for rma's.

Though it could very well void your warranty by removing the heatsinks to check.
Kind of ironic.

[Silver Bullet]

Well, now...I'm stuck with an i7 2600k, 8GB of Vengeance 1866 and no motherboard to put it in. That damn Maximus IV hasn't been in stock anywhere since I've started looking and now it seems even farther away!

My CPU will remain on the shelf for the time being it seems

I'm in the same boat

Newegg has pulled all P67 boards it looks like also.

[Buckeye]

This is only for SATA 3 ports right ?

If that is the case then other ports are no problem. So if you don't use SATA 3 then you have nothing to worry about correct ??

Just thought I would ask

[FM_Jarnis]

What I mean is to see the new and the old side by side, once the new chip comes out, the people with the old ones could check to make sure.
Same goes for rma's.

Though it could very well void your warranty by removing the heatsinks to check.
Kind of ironic.

I would imagine that mobo manufacturers might actually roll out new board revs (v2 or tack -B to the end etc) to clearly label new batch boards with fixed chipset. No need to peek under heatsinks...

[Buckeye]

Newegg has pulled all P67 boards it looks like also.

Still showing those boards for me

[FM_Jarnis]

This is only for SATA 3 ports right ?

If that is the case then other ports are no problem. So if you don't use SATA 3 then you have nothing to worry about correct ??

Just thought I would ask

So far every detailed report has stated that this only affects Intel SATA2 ports (port 2-5). SATA3 ports (0-1) and non-intel additional ports (Marvell, whatever, depends on your board if present) are unaffected.

Note that you can use SATA3 ports with SATA2 drives.

[Buckeye]

So far every detailed report has stated that this only affects Intel SATA2 ports (port 2-5). SATA3 ports (0-1) and non-intel additional ports (Marvell, whatever, depends on your board if present) are unaffected.

Note that you can use SATA3 ports with SATA2 drives.

Thats the way I read this also, thanks for comfirming FM

Ok so to further add to this... if you don't use the SATA 3 ports at all then you have nothing to be concerned about.

I am not sure how many of you have SATA 3 devices, I only have 1 atm which gets used very little so its no big deal to me at this time.

[Eastcoasthandle]

Further analysis at Anand.

...I asked Intel if 6-series derivative chipsets were affected by the problem, specifically the Z68 chipset. While all 6-series chipsets are exposed to the issue, the launch schedule for all future derivates remains unaffected. Z68 will continue to launch somewhere in Q2 2011. I would expect to see motherboards around April...

I really don't understand that sentence. It reads to me that the Z68 may have the issue but they are shipping it to customers anyway

[Lanek]

This is only for SATA 3 ports right ?

If that is the case then other ports are no problem. So if you don't use SATA 3 then you have nothing to worry about correct ??

Just thought I would ask

the problem is on the Sata II, Sata III is the 6gb/s, ), And the problem is with the Intel Sata II, Hopefully i have allready my main on the 6gb/s, and there's too Gigabyte SATA III on the board...

Edited, FM Jarnis was faster

[zalbard]

I really don't understand that sentence. It reads to me that the Z68 may have the issue but they are shipping it to customers anyway

Z68 isn't out yet. So it will be fixed prior to being shipped.

[SKYMTL]

Let's clear this up.

The Jan 9th shipping date is listed due to NDA lift. No baords should have been sold before this. As such, this recall affects EVERY P6x-series board shipped to date. THis is not a batch flaw, it is a DESIGN FLAW so anyone who has a P60-series board will be affected

HOWEVER there are a number of things to remember:

- This issue is a GRADUAL degredation and is NOT fatal in any way.
- It only affects the SATA ports which are serviced by the chipset. Any other ports which use a third party controller will function as normal
- It affects NOTEBOOK, SERVER, etc products as well


Several board manufacturers have already issued notices to retailers which essentially require them to delist P6x-series motherboards. Intel's communication to their partners requires them to immediately stop shipments of said boards until revised chipsets can be integrated into products.

[Kobaltrock]

Still showing those boards for me

It shows them, but you can't add anything to the cart.

[Krazeyivan]

If I upgrade my QX6700 now and go Sandy bridge route I'll skip the P67 and go straight to Z68 - or see what AMD have cooking.

Now that Mr Jobs is firmly in the Intel camp and his Macbook will now be delayed on the sandy front he should just tell intel to advise everyone - "You're plugging it in wrong"