Intel Identifies Sandy Bridge Chipset Design Error, All Shipments Stopped

[TAViX]

I see price cutting on the mobos for Sandy Bell!

btw, if the make a chipset revision they should also revise USB 3.0 instead of ancient 2.0. This way everybody will be happy in the end...

 

[R3DF13LD]

Wow dat was just great it hits the "Xeon" c200 series chipset too

Source

 

[Bundy]

Hmmm, so Intel say that not a lot of customers are affected but they allocate $700 million to fix their problems?
I was thinking about getting a SB but was unsure. I'm quite sure now! Looks like there will be a delay

 

[Mussels]

percentage wise, very few intel customers have sandy bridge platforms at present. So it is only a small amount of customers.

 

[chevy350]

yup, mainly gonna be HP, Dell, Acer an them guys who got hurt the most lol....I'll wait an see how everything turns out before I try to RMA

 

[HellZaQ]

The boys didn't show

 

[PaulieG]

I just sent an email to a contact at Biostar-USA to see if there is talk about handling boards that need to be fixed or replaced. I'll post whenever I hear back from the rep.

 

[mtosev]

One happy user with the LGA1366 socket. Too bad for them screwing their latest socket.

 

[Silverel]

Yanno... Goddammit.

I've been an AMD guy since my K6-2, every single motherboard I've had has died in one way or another after a handful of years. Nothing else gone bad, just motherboards. Strictly AMD chipsets too. Granted, I've done my fair share of OC'ing in the past, but I just figured it was the cost of keeping a board for 2+ years at a time. So finally I've gotten to the point in my career where I have a fair amount of money stashed away for a nice rig and I go to Intel. Pick up a new P67 board and Sandy 2500k, well look at my specs I guess.

You can imagine my reaction on hearing this news

Then I started digging into what was actually the problem with the board. Anand has a nice article up that goes into some detail and what can cause the SATA 2 to fail. Basically sticking your motherboard into an oven and over volting the SB.

Yeah, I'm not planning on any of that nonsense. On top of that, the SATA 3 ports will still work regardless and if I REALLY need more SATA 2 ports, I'll probably end up with a PCIe RAID card anyway. So, while defective these early boards might be, all reports point to over volting in the short term, and regular use at around the ~3 year mark for points of failure. For the SATA 2 ports.

I can deal with that.

 

[MicroUnC]

eh...

waiting for the revision...

 

[Initialised]

Expect recall notices from the major MB manufacturers over then next 48 hours.

 

[PaulieG]

Expect recall notices from the major MB manufacturers over then next 48 hours.

Not sure about this, as this is a response I received from a contact at Biostar...

"Hi Paul

At this moment we don’t have any official statement yet due to we have not yet been contact by Intel nor by our Biostar HQ office in Taiwan regarding the issue. We most likely won’t get a response until next week because Taiwan is currently on a one week Holiday break, Chinese New Year. However at this moment we are putting hold on the items until we can further clear things up."

 

[Molignar]

Just a heads up for anyone in Canada who purchased through NCIX and hasn't seen this yet.....


http://forums.ncix.com/forums/?mode=showthread&forum=116&threadid=2309652&pagenumber=1&msgcount=1&subpage=1


http://forums.ncix.com/forums/?mode...did=2309652&pagenumber=1&msgcount=1&subpage=1 - Just incase I screwed the hyperlink (trying to do this on the go)

 

[PaulieG]

Just a heads up for anyone in Canada who purchased through NCIX and hasn't seen this yet.....


http://forums.ncix.com/forums/?mode=showthread&forum=116&threadid=2309652&pagenumber=1&msgcount=1&subpage=1


http://forums.ncix.com/forums/?mode...did=2309652&pagenumber=1&msgcount=1&subpage=1 - Just incase I screwed the hyperlink (trying to do this on the go)

I really hope that US retailers like Newegg, Tiger Direct etc. post something similar soon.

 

[Initialised]

Not sure about this, as this is a response I received from a contact at Biostar...

"Hi Paul

At this moment we don’t have any official statement yet due to we have not yet been contact by Intel nor by our Biostar HQ office in Taiwan regarding the issue. We most likely won’t get a response until next week because Taiwan is currently on a one week Holiday break, Chinese New Year. However at this moment we are putting hold on the items until we can further clear things up."

I can't say who, yet, but I have seen an email with text in the form of a formal statement from one MB manufacturer so far and similar nosies from another.

 

[CDdude55]

Very unfortunate for Intel. Hopefully they roll out with revised boards with fixed controllers soon.

 

[Molignar]

Just thought I'd cut and paste this for any Gigabyte owners aswell who haven't seen it yet who are waiting on a timeframe for new boards...

-- Notice: Motherboards Based on Intel® 6 Series Chipsets --
-- GIGABYTE Acknowledges Intel’s Alert for Regarding 6 Series Chipset --

Taipei, Taiwan – February 1, 2011 – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and other computing hardware solutions, today announced that GIGABYTE has been alerted by Intel about a 6 series chipset design error. GIGABYTE is working closely with Intel® to minimize the inconvenience to customers and retail stores with regard to related issues.

A recent statement from Intel indicates that they expect full 6 series chipset volume recovery in April, 2011. GIGABYTE will produce and deliver new motherboards with the updated Intel 6 series chipset when the new chipsets become available. GIGABYTE prides itself in having the highest service quality in the industry, and as such we will resolve this issue with minimal impact on our customers.

Additional information will be added to the official motherboard website and the GIGABYTE Tech Daily blog as the situation develops.

 

[15th Warlock]

Just thought I'd cut and paste this for any Gigabyte owners aswell who haven't seen it yet who are waiting on a timeframe for new boards...

-- Notice: Motherboards Based on Intel® 6 Series Chipsets --
-- GIGABYTE Acknowledges Intel’s Alert for Regarding 6 Series Chipset --

Taipei, Taiwan – February 1, 2011 – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and other computing hardware solutions, today announced that GIGABYTE has been alerted by Intel about a 6 series chipset design error. GIGABYTE is working closely with Intel® to minimize the inconvenience to customers and retail stores with regard to related issues.

A recent statement from Intel indicates that they expect full 6 series chipset volume recovery in April, 2011. GIGABYTE will produce and deliver new motherboards with the updated Intel 6 series chipset when the new chipsets become available. GIGABYTE prides itself in having the highest service quality in the industry, and as such we will resolve this issue with minimal impact on our customers.

Additional information will be added to the official motherboard website and the GIGABYTE Tech Daily blog as the situation develops.

Good, April it is then.

Our SATA 3 ports should get the job done in the meantime

Thanks for the info

 

[segalaw19800]

My Dream came true.. HA HA HA.. I Know I'm an ass...

 

[xbonez]

Newegg's information as posted by hertz9753 here

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you. Newegg has recently become aware of a design issue that is affecting recent models of Intel Sandy Bridge platform motherboards. We are working with Intel to identify the exact nature of this problem.

As always, Newegg remains 100% committed to our customers' total satisfaction. In keeping with our commitment to our customers, we are extending the return period for your motherboard by 90 days or until replacements become available from the manufacturer, whichever is greater. Intel expects to have a new revision of the P67 & H67 chipsets out around April, at which point first-run motherboards with this issue will need to be physically replaced in affected systems.

From a technical standpoint, the design issue can be bypassed fairly simply by not using the Serial ATA (SATA) ports that are affected. Your motherboard’s manual should identify your SATA ports by number, and at a minimum you should see ports 0-5 (6 ports in total) listed. Ports 0 and 1 are Sata Rev. III (6Gbps), and do not appear to be affected by this problem. Ports 2-5 are SATA Rev. II (3Gbps) and should not be used. For a thorough explanation of this hardware work-around, please refer to our video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJcE2alQPvY

If you choose to use the hardware work-around option, there is no need to contact us at this time. We have your information on record and will email you as soon as the replacements become available. If you would like to discuss this with our tech community or read up on the latest updates, please visit our EggXpert forum:
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/682006.aspx

If none of the above options are suitable to your needs and you wish to return the board at this time for a full refund, please email us at intelsandybridge@newegg.com and include your sales order number so we can help you out with your return.

If you have any concerns, please contact Newegg Customer Service for further information and assistance.

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Your Newegg.com Customer Service Team

Currently chatting with Amazon to see if any updates on their end. Will update ASAP.

EDIT

Here's Amazon's reply:

I'm sorry. We don't have any update in our website. Please contact the manufacturer ASUS for more information.
You can usually find contact
information listed in the product manual that came with the item.

 

[Mussels]

seems that newegg is good, gunna replace everyones boards.

amazon seem to be doing it a crap way, and telling you to deal with asus.

 

[Zen_]

seems that newegg is good, gunna replace everyones boards.

Well, they can't replace them yet because there is nothing to replace them with. They have offered refunds.

I'm curious how long the full refunds will be good for...I like my current board but if there's something better by the time the redesigned P67 boards ship out, perhaps a free upgrade.

 

[Mussels]

Well, they can't replace them yet because there is nothing to replace them with. They have offered refunds.

I'm curious how long the full refunds will be good for...I like my current board but if there's something better by the time the redesigned P67 boards ship out, perhaps a free upgrade.

at a guess, it goes up the food chain. every bad board that suppliers have can be passed back to their supplier, who passes it back to intel for a replacement.


overall intel is the only one who really loses out, as everyone gets replacements.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

All teh sandy cpu's and motherboards have been pulled from newegg. I chatted with a newegg rep named Andrea and she said that they dont expect anything sandy bridge related until around April of this year.

 

[Zen_]

Wow, if retailers are not expecting any new SB boards until April surely there will be an interim solution? Anyone who wants a midrange Intel system (i.e. not 1366) would have to buy older 1156 parts.