Intel Updates Sandy Bridge Situation, Green Lights Select Shipments
Intel Updates Sandy Bridge Situation, Green Lights Select Shipments
Posted 02/08/2011 at 6:09am
| by Paul Lilly
9
Comments
Print
Intel unintentionally put OEM system builders in a bad spot when the chip maker disclosed a design flaw in its 6-series chipset for the Sandy Bridge platform. OEMs were left scrambling to make the situation right with customers, whether it meant extending warranties, bypassing the buggy SATA ports by offering to install a free PCI-E SATA add-in card, or delaying builds until Intel is able to ship out a new batch of boards with a corrected chipset. The latter option means waiting until April, so Intel has come up with a different solution.
Following a discussion with computer makers, Intel said it is "resuming shipments of the Intel 6-series chipset for use only in PC system configurations that are not impacted by the design issue. Only computer makers who have committed to shipping the Intel 6-series chipset in PC system configurations that are not impacted by the design issue will be receiving these shipments."
If you recall from our FAQ, the design bug doesn't affect SATA ports 0/1, which happen to be the SATA 6Gb/s ports. The remaining four SATA 3Gb/s ports are affected, though failure or data corruption isn't a foregone conclusion. Moreover, any additional SATA ports -- such as those provided by Marvell or Jmicron -- are unaffected as well.
What we gather from this announcement is that Intel is giving PC makers the green light to order, build, and ship systems that work around the faulty ports. In other words, hard drives and SSDs would need to be installed on SATA ports 0/1, though it's unclear if PC makers would be allowed to install optical drives on the remaining four ports.
Intel previously stated that the bug would only affect a small number of PCs, and even then, the problem might not manifest for a long time. By avoiding those ports altogether, Intel is ensuring that the problem is all but eliminated (the only exception would be if a user chose to add another hard drive on their own) while letting OEMs get Sandy Bridge systems out the door.
More like this
9
Comments
Comments are closed on this article
radiomn
February 08, 2011 at 6:32pm
While it is unfortunate that the chipset has an issue on the non 6Gig ports, I for one will wait for a 100% INTEL solution. Lest we forget that they are competitors. And Intel Processors and Intel Chipsets are superior to the competition. Sorry AMD fanboys but Microsoft doesn't model their O/S on anything by AMD, and quite likely... they never will.
Obsidian
February 08, 2011 at 1:40pm
So, what's happened here is that Intel is calling the bluff/ability of consumers to hold them in any way accountable for faulty products.
MaximumPC consumers don't buy a board with 6 to 10 SATA connections, printed as such on the box; only to have 4 of them not function as expected. This work around, as suggested to use ports 0/1 and/or move the drives to other headers, isn't a solution at all. Assuming a low failure rate might amount to only several single-digit percentage of failures for motherboard manufacturers. But for those affected, the product is now known to be faulty, and can not be sold as having as many functional SATA ports.
False advertising.
This is a huge potential public relations failure for Intel. Even if it affects very few people. You'd think that for a company of their caliber they'd want to do right by the consumers of their products. If it affects as small a number as they claim a few million dollars thrown at the problem (replace motherboards, help resellers) would go a LONG way to turn a bad PR deal into a huge good-will campaign. Bean counters probably don't see things that way.
Anecdotally it's unfortunate for me because I am in the first stages of building and planning my next PC, the purchase is to happen within the next 4 months. I'd hate to have this issue affect my decision to build on a certain platform. But now I'm looking into alternatives to the Intel processors. Before, that line of decision making would have not been up for debate.
win7fanboi
February 08, 2011 at 1:46pm
+1 ... I was planning a build as well. Really wish that AMD steps up their game and capitalizes on Intel's boo-boo.
D00dlavy
February 08, 2011 at 11:17am
Oh yeah, sign me up for this wonky s__t.
*Is happy he's in the AMD camp. Dragon FTW.*
win7fanboi
February 08, 2011 at 10:38am
Boo... Hiss! Hi folks, in today's news Intel lets greed get the best of them again by 'letting' the OEM makers continue making certain configurations using Sandy Bridge. As a byproduct it also 'lets' them sell the defective CPUs instead of having to fix all of them. Win (Intel) - Win (OEMs) - Lose (Customers).
Imagine a year from now people buying/selling used laptops. How do you know which are laptops impacted... but.. but you may never see the issue since you won't change your laptop config. What about upgrades. OEMs hopefully will change the product names after they start receiving the defect free parts and make accessories available for them.
Intel. Fail.
patrickmaher
February 08, 2011 at 1:07pm
There are some OEM builds that do not solder all of the SATA connectors to the motherboard. Some only have 2 SATA ports that would likely be the SATA 6Gb/s ports. This is more common on laptops but also can be the case on lower end desktops. Although probably not as common on desktops as it was when PATA was still included on boards.
It would be physically impossible to use the SATA 3Gb/s ports in these cases and this is likely the type of build that Intel is allowing the OEMs to resume selling. Intel has been controlling the situation and it's unlikely that they would allow OEMs to resume shipping boards with SATA 3Gb/s ports, that they will have to pay to replace later.
logicmaster2003
February 08, 2011 at 7:55am
"Intel 6-series chipset in PC system configurations that are not impacted by the design issue"
What brand and model of motherboards are not impacted ?
Paul_Lilly
February 08, 2011 at 9:18am
They're all impacted, but if you configure a system to use only SATA ports 0/1, or plop a SATA PCI-E add-in card, then you sidestep the issue.
Connect with MaximumPC
Featured Content
The gang discusses the GTX 690, Trinity, Ivy Bridge, Amazon, big-box stores, MMOs,...
This month's issue
Feature
Build a PC On Any Budget
Feature
Cloud Services Showdown
How-To
Encrypt Your External Drive
Build It
Upgrade an X58 Rig
Most Commented Articles
Latest Max PC Tweets
- maximumpc: Original RickRoll Video Returns to YouTube After 24-Hour Copyright Hiatus http://t.co/MaH9Sxyy1 day 15 hours ago
- maximumpc: Corsair has decided not to go forward with its $78 million IPO, citing weak equity market conditions http://t.co/A5a4DAzj1 day 15 hours ago
- maximumpc: Want to work at Maximum PC? Our Online Managing Editor, Alex, is moving away, so we need a new one. http://t.co/9Z7JCh0E3 days 13 hours ago
