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

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para08 said:
Intel's website says ALL SB boards shipping since January 9th are affected..which just so happens to be the day of release. So basically everyone with a SB board has a defective product.
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Took me a few minutes to find it - top of the 'support' front page - but that's how I read it too.

Chipsets
Alert for Intel® 6 Series Express Chipsets and Intel® Xeon® C200 Chipsets users

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 31, 2011 – As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel® 6 Series (and the Intel® C200 Series Chipset), and has implemented a silicon fix. In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives. The chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel’s latest Second Generation Intel Core processors. Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue.

The company expects to begin delivering the updated version of the chipset to customers in late February and expects full volume recovery in April. Intel stands behind its products and is committed to product quality. For computer makers and other Intel customers that have bought potentially affected chipsets or systems, Intel will work with its OEM partners to accept the return of the affected chipsets, and plans to support modifications or replacements needed on motherboards or systems. The systems with the affected support chips have only been shipping since January 9th and the company believes that relatively few consumers are impacted by this issue. The only systems sold to an end customer potentially impacted are Second Generation Core i5 and Core i7 quad core based systems. Intel believes that consumers can continue to use their systems with confidence, while working with their computer manufacturer for a permanent solution.

If you believe you may be affected by this issue, please contact your place of purchase, or your Intel Field Sales Representative.
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Bye bye SSD array, back to a two drive system :(.
But a Z68 would be nice :)
 
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Replacing the motherboard isn't exactly the quickest job in the world. I presume that any RMA would insist on the customers sending the motherboard back before any replacement is issued.

I don't understand why anyone would want to buy a motherboard given that we know that they are flawed.

To continue selling them just seems like an accident waiting to happen until it is clear on the exact strategy/impact.
 
Hopefully at some point there will be some clarification over exactly what is going to happen with this both in terms of a per-manufacturer policy, and also - crucially - OCUK. I'm sure Gibbo is on top of that.

Question is - do we carry on using the boards cognisant of this hardware defect (which in case anyone was uncertain - affects all P67 boards sold after Jan 9th, i.e. every retail sale post-NDA) or would we weaken our position as consumers w.r.t "fitness for purpose" / Sale of Goods Act?
 
Durzel said:
Question is - do we carry on using the boards cognisant of this hardware defect (which in case anyone was uncertain - affects all P67 boards sold after Jan 9th, i.e. every retail sale post-NDA) or would we weaken our position as consumers w.r.t "fitness for purpose" / Sale of Goods Act?
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Interesting thought, I'll have a chat with a 'Friend' who works at the CAB and see where we all stand. It may well be possible that we, as consumers, are waving our rights while we continue to use the product. I'd expect there is a acceptability statement within the SOGA.
 
If I was sitting here with a SB board, I would certainly be expecting a replacement, based on intel's public statement. Unfortunately, it appears that the new boards will not be released until about March, so I would bide my time until then as there's no point returning a board and having a SB processor with nowhere to plonk itself!

As I don't have a SB system :D I will wait until new boards are released, and assuming that this won't be until March, I will probably bypass the current iteration altogether. I wasn't sure whether or not I wanted to buy now (2600k chip is very nice) or wait, but this has made my decision for me.
 
So, what should a new buyer do given the situation: should they wait for new motherboards that have the problem fixed or just buy one?

I only ask because if I should wait, then I may just get an old i7 rig instead. :D
 
Ace Modder said:
With the expected failure rate to be around 5% it's not really "most likely faulty" is it.

We are waiting for further communciation from Intel regarding the status of potentially faulty return requests.
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Would Intel really set aside $1b and halt production of 6 series based motherboards for something with just a 5% failure rate? Seems a bit off to me, I can't see a failure rate that low causing such a reaction personally.
 
was reading this on tweakguides and acording to them intel have issued a recall on them all

I don't usually report hardware issues, but this one affects general performance. Intel has announced that it has identified a chipset design error which affects its latest P67/H67 chipset motherboards. Any SATA drives connected to such motherboards can decrease in performance over time, eventually failing to be detected. This issue only occurs on the 3Gbps SATA ports, not the 6Gbps ports (Ports 0 & 1). Intel has issued a recall - contact your retailer or Intel to get a replacement motherboard. If shopping for a new Sandy Bridge-based system, wait for the new replacement motherboards to reach the market starting in late February.
 
Awahwah said:
Interesting thought, I'll have a chat with a 'Friend' who works at the CAB and see where we all stand. It may well be possible that we, as consumers, are waving our rights while we continue to use the product. I'd expect there is a acceptability statement within the SOGA.
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If you have "accepted" the goods then you lose the right to rescind the contract (essentially cancel it for a full refund) if the goods are not of satisfactory quality. You have accepted the goods if you tell the retailer that you have done so or otherwise make them believe that you have done so. There is no specific time limit, the Sale of Goods Act just states "The buyer is also deemed to have accepted the goods when after the lapse of a reasonable time he retains the goods without intimating to the seller that he has rejected them." "Reasonable time" could be anything from a few days to several months depending on the nature of the product and it would ultimately be up to a court to determine it if it came to that.

But even if you are deemed to have accepted the motherboard, you are still entitled to a repair or replacement if it develops a fault that was due to a manufacturing flaw.

I would be more concerned about someone buying a motherboard today - if they have been made aware of a particular fault prior to the purchase then they may well lose their statutory rights in regards to that fault...
 
In light of these events, **** have decided to temporarily suspend all shipment of Sandy Bridge architecture until we receive further information from Intel. Don't buy SB is the bottom line.
 
Just spotted this on the Intel Web site. Reads to me that they..... hang on read yourselves boys:

http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-032263.htm

"For computer makers and other Intel customers that have bought potentially affected chipsets or systems, Intel will work with its OEM partners to accept the return of the affected chipsets, and plans to support modifications or replacements needed on motherboards or systems."

Does'nt seem like a recall but Intel will accept returns.
 
cochoc said:
....

As I don't have a SB system :D I will wait until new boards are released, and assuming that this won't be until March, I will probably bypass the current iteration altogether....
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I'll be getting SB PC soon; I was just wondering, how would the consumer know the difference on which boards were the new boards from the old ones once released by Intel?
 
duncanm said:
Go fan boy go.

Already switched the most important drives to those, still having to use 2 ports for SATA for data drives + 1 for DVD which isn't really an issue.

Secondly don't be condescending because you're assuming my data is due to torrenting etc. There are plenty of legit reasons for needing to store and manipulate large amounts of data.

Is what Intel have said so far as far as I can tell, I can't find any statements that guarantee there is no risk of data loss so I'd very much appreciate a link that confirms that isn't a risk.
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If your data is so important, you'll have you multiple backups which you verify and test on a regular basis, so an HD failing shouldn't be an issue, should it?
 
With a change of motherboard ( same model I assume ) will I have to re-install my OS and re-overclock from scratch?
 
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