*****SANDYBRIDGE MOTHERBOARD CHIPSET ISSUE*****

[Gibbo]

Hi there


The potential problem as outlined by Intel® is as follows:-

In some cases, motherboards featuring the 6 Series Chipset (P67 & H67) that have Sata devices connected to ports 2-5 could potentially degrade over time.
Motherboards with devices connected to Ports 0 & 1 remain unaffected or using the 6G ports.
PLEASE NOTE THERE IS NO POTENTIAL ISSUE TO SANDYBRIDGE PROCESSORS, this communication refers only to Sandybridge motherboards using P67 & H67 chipset ONLY.


OcUK has been advised by Intel that there may be a potential issue regarding Sandy Bridge and the P67 Chipset.

There is considered to be no immediate threat, and Intel recommends customers not to panic, as this is, at this stage, considered to be a precautionary measure.

OcUK are in discussion with Intel as to the finer details of the issue, and at present there is no need for customers to return products, and this will continue to be the case until such time as Intel advise on any necessary course of action.

In light of these events, OcUK has left Sandybridge based products on sale and should any issues arise all customers will be covered, we shall be adding disclaimers to all P67 mainboards tomorrow stating this and that all customers will be covered.

All customers will be contacted once we have received a definitive Returns Procedure from Intel, should this be the case.

At present, there is no immediate threat / danger / risk of damage to CPUs, Motherboards or Systems, and we urge that customers continue to use their systems as normal.

Any required replacements will be handled efficiently, and any further updates will be announced via the website and forums.

At this time, we would request that customers do not contact us with regards to this issue, as we are of course fully aware, and will publish all information as we have it via our website and forums.

Please avoid contacting us regarding this particular issue as it just swallows up resources, where the information has already been made available via our website/forums, and we will continue to inform of any updates ongoing etc.


So right now its all a bit of an unknown, we shall know a lot more over the next couple of days and if a recall is actioned instructions shall be posted on the website and forum.

As we know more we shall pass it onto our customers.

 

[Gibbo]

ANOTHER UPDATE FROM ASUS:-

Dear Partner

As you know Intel have issued a press statement regarding the potential issue in up to 5% of sandy bridge boards on the market, please be aware this is not a definite fault in all boards, but up to 5% of boards may develop the fault.

We are currently confirming our official statement and plan of action and will update you accordingly.

Thanks
Asus

 

[Gibbo]

I'm sorry but that is really cynical imo.

You (OCUK) know these motherboards have a defect, Intel clearly think it is significant enough to announce it and an as-yet-unspecified plan of action that involves $1b (what else could it be but a recall?) and the best you're prepared to do is add a bit of text to the product description, the same colour & size as the actual product description so its easily missed, or missed completely if someone just clicks the "Buy" button, telling people about the fault?

I'm sorry but that smacks of trying to sell as many of these things to unsuspecting customers and hope that in 3 years time when they find their hard drives don't work anymore they forget where they bought it from - if they even have a warranty then at all - or assume it's "wear and tear" or something.

That's not customer service.

We are looking into how to actually change the text colour, our internal systems support it but it needs to be coded into the description which only our IT guy knows how to do as he wrote the software and at the moment he is up a mountain somewhere in the Peak District.

As it stands we are leaving the boards on sale until a manufacturer or Intel instruct us to do otherwise.

Because many customers like myself would still buy a Sandybridge setup fully aware of this issue as according to Asus the issue first of all effects upto only 5% mainboards. Secondly its an issue which would never effect me, as I'd be using PCI-E or SATA6G for my HDD's and would only have devices connected to SATA ports 0 and 1 as such I'd never need the use of ports 2-5 and if I did the chance of an issue is just 5%.

Were doing our best to keep customers aware of the issue, news bulletin on main website, posted all over our forums and all motherboard descriptions updated and yes we shall try to make the text red. So were trying to keep all fully informed but at the same time were not going to remove from sale simply because this issue will effect so few customers and many customers simply won't care, I know I would not and neither would most people I know, if I want the best I shall buy it. I only won't buy it if the product won't do what I want and as such Sandybridge does exactly what I want which is overclock superbly and is very fast.

Right now things are in the air, we shall follow any guidelines outlined by manufacturers as and when we recieve such instructions. For those who don't want Sandybridge we have full stocks of I3 and I5 1156 processors and still plenty of 1366 kit.

 

[Gibbo]

The fact of the matter is of ocuk and other etailer did a Newegg and delisted their sandybridge motherboards, it will affect their business big time. At the end of the day they have stopped production of the affected chipsets. If it wasn't a big deal why have they done this?
Also where is this 5% coming from? According to the Intel press release it's ALL chipsets shipped since January the 9th.

The 5% has come from Asus and the Asus comment was posted earlier in this thread.

 

[Gibbo]

I can say with a calm voice that after spending over £2000 in the last few weeks with OC on 2 SB setups I am not worried as OC will handle any problems or correct any issues leading from this once they know more.

Spot on and agreed.

 

[Gibbo]

Hey,

You may well only use the 6g and a pcie card, the bulk of people buying these boards have raid arrays which sit quite nicely on their normal sata ports. Just as mine do now.

Its a bit silly to expect everyone to be the same as you with the hard drive usage, infact I'd bet a large amount of money that most of your customers use the onboard sata, and quite a few of them.

I was about to upgrade after a small windfall I didn't know about coming in yesterday, but I'll steer well clear until the new stuff comes out.

Fact of the matter is, if they do have to do a recall, people are left without a usable pc for an unknown quantity of time. No good for me currently thats for sure.

Glad I got i5 1156 from you

Edit : People shouldn't have to not use ports 2-5, its like you buying a car, and only using the first three gears. Not acceptable

Were not saying its acceptable, what were saying is a lot of people won't care. So by leaving them on sale we cater for those customers and those customers if they do have an issue down the line they can simply RMA the board as normal.

We've made it more than clear on our website:-

1. Bright red text in all motherboard descriptions!
2. News bulletin on main website!
3. Several forum threads!

Those buying are now fully aware and should they have an issue they can RMA the board.

Until Intel or motherboard manufacturers request otherwise we are leaving on sale, because there are a lot of customers who do want to buy in full knowledge of the potential issue. To remove from sale we instantly loose those sales and we shall only remove from sale if requested to do so by the manufacturer, until such time they remain on sale.

 

[Gibbo]

I see absolutely no issue with OcUK continuing to sell these products - they are making the customers aware of the issue, if people still want to purchase SB products then why should they be unable to do so?

Had I not already upgraded to SB I'd not be put off doing so by this problem and would want to be able to still purchase the hardware.

Well said Fox.

 

[Gibbo]

That if I want to alter any data on those drives there are now unknown risks for the health of the drive, and therefore a significantly increased risk of data loss.

If you go back and read Gibbo's post he shows that he has no intention of touching the affected slots.

Why are you trying to cause panick with talk of data loss?

Intel have clearly stated that data is not at risk. If the board drops the port(S) you simply connect to another and the data is still there. Don't try to cause a rumour that does not exist please and as Fox has said use your system as normal the chances you will be effected are slim and if/when Intel come up with an action plan then we can move forward.

 

[Gibbo]

This is an excellent article from Anand:-
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4143/the-source-of-intels-cougar-point-sata-bug




Final Words
Intel maintains that Sandy Bridge CPUs are not affected, and current users are highly unlikely to encounter the issue even under heavy loads. So far Intel has only been able to document the issue after running extended testing at high temperatures (in a thermal chamber) and voltages. My recommendation is to try to only use ports 0 & 1 (the 6Gbps ports) on your 6-series motherboard until you get a replacement in place.

OEMs and motherboard manufacturers are going to be talking to Intel over the next week to figure out the next steps. Intel plans to deliver fixed silicon to its partners at the end of February, however it’ll still take time for the motherboard makers to turn those chips into products. I wouldn’t expect replacements until March at the earliest.

I maintain that the best gesture of goodwill on Intel’s part would be to enable motherboard manufacturers to replace P67/H67 motherboards with Z68 boards for those users who want them.




Lets see what motherboard manufacturers have to say and if they shall be sorting out a return/recall policy or not......

 

[Gibbo]

Well if the Sata port ceases functioning completely mid write, what are the chances of data loss and/or data corruption?

Exactly the same as if you were writing data and had a power cut and did not have a UPS.
You will loose the data you were writing for sure, causing that data to be corrupted, but all other data would be intact.

For those who are mega worried about data and can't be without their PC, then buy yourself a SATA controller card and connect your devices to that if your using ports 2-5 on your SB motherboard. Otherwise wait a few days/week until the motherboard vendors release official statements and action plans.

Intel themselves stated they could only get the issue to happen in a heated up chamber with higher voltages now I'd assume most of you are in well ventilated cases and not running above stock voltage on the motherboard chipset and as such the chances of seeing this issue are very low, no doubt sub the 5% Asus are claiming.

 

[Gibbo]

Thanks Gibbo. When I get my board back i'll be putting my SSD and data drive on the Sata III ports and only my optical on the Sata II port.

Remember SATA III ports are fine as are ports 0 and 1. Just 2-5 are affected.

Then if you need more, just buy a cheap SATA card, they are like £15-£30.
Then remember press makes something seem far worse than it is, if Intel had to increases voltages and temperatures to get this problem to show itself I doubt most end users will witness the issue.

 

[Gibbo]

You are pretty much right.

As much as anything getting rubbed up the wrong way by people saying don't worry there isn't a problem instead of know one really knows but you should be ok.

Actually most of the data is a mixture fraps and video footage that I haven't got around to properly editing.

6TB of porn would be O_O

You do realise the only data at risk would be the data thats been written to at the time, so its not all your data just be what was written to at the time.

Also yes there is an issue but the issue is nowhere near as bad as you seem to think it is. Intel themselves have said to manifest the issue they had to go in a thermal chamber with higher temperatures and voltages to see the issue and Asus have also commented saying 5%.

My Sandybridge rig here is still running happily and its had absurb voltages thrown the the motherboard and CPU as I was attempting to kill it, yet it still lives and everything is working fine including both HDD's and optical drive which are connected to the regular SATA ports.

We shall get some deals posted up on controller cards for those who want to air on the side of caution as any recall/rma situation if it happens will still be a good month away as B3 revisions won't be available until March-April time.

 

[Gibbo]

I'll play devils advocate here...

My one week old C300 died today.

I'm not saying it was down to this fault, but no one can be 100% and claim it wasn't either.

Well its not as you'd have your C300 connected to the un-affected ports.

 

[Gibbo]

What about us who have to use the 3gb ports ?

You will probably be fine, if you have really sensitive data and don't want to take any risk just buy a SATA card or just unplug that drive.

These boards have circa 8 SATA ports, only 4 are effected so plug your devices into the 4 un-affected ports.
If you have more than 4 devices then plug your hard drives into the 4 un-affected ports and plug your optical drives into the affected ports. If you still need more ports then take the risk which is extremely minimal, buy a SATA card or wait for further updates on a fix/rma solution.

 

[Gibbo]

right i have something that dont add up. so if some one could help would be grate..
i got a p67 3.4 2600k cpu runing at 4.8ghz and asus delux p867 mobo.. i just ran a windows performance test and every thing come back at 7.8!! but the hard drivers come back at 5.8???? i have two SSD`s how is that possible? befor i got this board and chip i got 7.8 score for every thing including the ssd`s. is there any way i can find out what the problem is or is this down to the fault please anyone ???

SSD's slow down as you fill them with more data and Windows Index is very random. Use proper hard drive benching tool but this will be due to your installing more programmes/games/photos on the SSD's.

 

[Gibbo]

To keep unplugging the drives is going to be a problem really as i use all ports and my case design means i have to take the board out each time to keep unplugging cables. Im not going to spend more money on a sata card as its intels fault they released boards that might develope a fault.

Which Asus board do you own as some of the Asus boards have more than 8 SATA ports, how many hard drives are actually in your system?

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there


Latest update is that motherboard manufacturers will be offering some kinds of RMA swap/replacement service which they shall post details off in the coming days or after Chinese New Year and they will it operate it at no cost to customer/end-user.

All in all it seems they are devising a plan which will work well for all but it won't happen overnight, as I get more info I shall post.

Asus also have this to say:-

For motherboards, we’ve confirmed with Intel® that the Cougar Point design error does not affect SATA ports 0 and 1. Additionally, ASUS has been a pioneer in including extra SATA 3Gb/s and SATA 6Gb/s ports beyond Intel® specifications on a wide range of motherboards. These ports are not affected by this design error, offering customers seamless and uninterrupted computing. However, we’re also offering you the option of returning any possibly affected motherboard for a swap or sales return. All warranties for affected motherboards will be reset to give you enough time to carry out any exchanges.

 

[Gibbo]

I dont own asus board mines the msi gd-65

Do you have more than 4 hard drives in this PC?

 

[Gibbo]

Nice to know Gibbo cheers.

In no cost to the customer I would hope that means you get your new board and thus no down time .... I will be expecting this of Intel I can tell you.

The no downtime in all honesty I seriously doubt this, I actually mentioned this to Intel last night and they simply said in regards to downtime for end users there will be *NO* compensation and made it clear anyone trying to get such compensation would loose. It might be harsh but I guess at the same time they know most people will cry wolf if they think they are gonna get some money for doing so and Intel also know that any serious business user will be un-affected as Sandybridge is not available in server platform.

But lets wait and see I am sure the motherboard manufacturers will be looking at the fastest and most hassle free process available.

What I would recommend is that all Sandybridge owners register their mainboards with the manufacturers if this is an option and keep an eye on motherboard manufacturer websites.

 

[Gibbo]

Is it wrong that I'm still tempted to buy one of these boards?

Not at all, this would have no impact on me buying one at all. This issue would never effect myself and as such I'd not care at all about it. At the same time those who are worried, well we got plenty of the older 1156 and 1366 kit available.