[Mize]

OUCH!

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/31/i...ments-stopped/

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel® 6 Series, code-named Cougar Point, 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, code-named Sandy Bridge. 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. For further information consumers should contact Intel at www.intel.com on the support page or contact their OEM manufacturer.

[Mize]

I expect a run on these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000410%20600022 631%20600022673&IsNodeId=1&Description=sata%20card %20pci&bop=And&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&CompareIt emList=410|16-115-072^16-115-072-TS,16-104-015^16-104-015-TS,16-132-030^16-132-030-TS

[corduroygt]

So Intel will send me a new DH67BL motherboard? It was a pain in the ass to mount my scythe big shuriken heatsink there, now I have to do it again?

[Mize]

Originally Posted by corduroygt

So Intel will send me a new DH67BL motherboard? It was a pain in the ass to mount my scythe big shuriken heatsink there, now I have to do it again?

That's why I went and got a PCI-E SATA3 card...I hate mounting my Scythe Mugen 2.
But, yes, Intel will get mobo manufacturers to replace or repair motherboards.

[Davros]

I guess thats one of the good things about intel they arnt frightened to recall products, they dont do the 6 months of denial thing first

[Mize]

They anticipate lost revenue of $300 million and a cost to recall of $700 million. I don't know their current GM% but they're creeping up to a billion dollar mistake. Ouch.

[Davros]

If the error is down to 1 person wouldnt like to be him right now

[Mize]

Steve Austin is jealous. He only cost $6 million.

[I.S.T.]

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/20329

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh shit.

[Davros]

its the "degrade over time" bit i dont understand i thought chips didnt wear out no moving parts and all

[swaaye]

I wonder if they are really serious about repairing existing boards. To actually remove and replace the chipset chips...

[Mize]

Originally Posted by swaaye

I wonder if they are really serious about repairing existing boards. To actually remove and replace the chipset chips...

who knows at this point...cost of removing and reinstalling the northbridge (plus really angry customer who has no rig for 2 week+) vs. whole new mobo?

My guess is that they'll get channel stock back to OEMs where the OEMs will replace the chipset with new ones and then they'll start replacing customer units with these reworked boards and use customer returns to make more reworked boards.

Expect genuinely "new" boards (no rework) around late April.

[Florin]

Originally Posted by Davros

I guess thats one of the good things about intel they arnt frightened to recall products, they dont do the 6 months of denial thing first

Plus they give their products cool names like Cougar Point.

which reminds me of my 8th grade teacher

[BRiT]

Originally Posted by Davros

its the "degrade over time" bit i dont understand i thought chips didnt wear out no moving parts and all

The "degrade over time" bit pretty much means self-destruction of a portion of the chipset, much like nVidia's issues with GPUs (bumpgate) but due to different reasons.

From Anandtech's writeup:

The problem in the chipset was traced back to a transistor in the 3Gbps PLL clocking tree. The aforementioned transistor has a very thin gate oxide, which allows you to turn it on with a very low voltage. Unfortunately in this case Intel biased the transistor with too high of a voltage, resulting in higher than expected leakage current. Depending on the physical characteristics of the transistor the leakage current here can increase over time which can ultimately result in this failure on the 3Gbps ports. The fact that the 3Gbps and 6Gbps circuits have their own independent clocking trees is what ensures that this problem is limited to only ports 2 - 5 off the controller.

You can coax the problem out earlier by testing the PCH at increased voltage and temperature levels. By increasing one or both of these values you can simulate load over time and that’s how the problem was initially discovered. Intel believes that any current issues users have with SATA performance/compatibility/reliability are likely unrelated to the hardware bug.

[Mize]

The bad news for some of us is that the Marvell SATA3 benches about 30% lower than the Intel SATA2 circuit on Asus mobos with Intel SSDs...and the Intel SATA3, coupled with a SATA2 Intel SSD is ALSO SLOWER than the Intel SATA2 circuit. Ugh.

[Davros]

Intel believes that any current issues users have with SATA performance/compatibility/reliability are likely unrelated to the hardware bug.

so there are other problems with it as well ?

[joker454]

So if I'm reading this right:

Depending on the physical characteristics of the transistor the leakage current here can increase over time which can ultimately result in this failure on the 3Gbps ports. The fact that the 3Gbps and 6Gbps circuits have their own independent clocking trees is what ensures that this problem is limited to only ports 2 - 5 off the controller.

...means this only affects the sata2 ports, and not the sata3 ports? Would be cool as I'm not using the sata2 ports anyways.

[Grall]

This is one reason why Intel crushing VIAs and Nvidia's chipset businesses is bad, even for Intel themselves.

If they hadn't done that, they could at least have continued to sell processors while replacement southbridges pass through manufacturing and out into distribution and retail channels. Now sales will if not halt, so at least slow down substantially, potentially for months depending on how long they waited after discovering this errata before they announced its existence and issued the recall order...

[digitalwanderer]

Ooops.

[corduroygt]

My motherboard is made by Intel, I got it from Newegg, who will I be contacting?
I only have 2 HDD's and they're both connected to sata6 ports although they're sata3 drives. I don't foresee getting more hard drives that aren't usb (no more room) but I still don't want to be stuck with a faulty chipset.

[BRiT]

I would contact Newegg, as they seem to have excellent customer service and at least be sure to get your RMA in early so as to limit the time you'd have to wait.

[corduroygt]

Originally Posted by Davros

If the error is down to 1 person wouldnt like to be him right now

Maybe he can meet up with the guy that was in charge of encrypting PS3 firmware up to version 3.55

[moozoo]

I agree with Grall.
Pay back for not supporting third party chipsets for their cpus.

[aaronspink]

Originally Posted by Davros

its the "degrade over time" bit i dont understand i thought chips didnt wear out no moving parts and all

All chips degrade over time, it is just that normally there is enough margin that no one ever notices. In fact EVERYTHING degrades over time. It is after all the nature of the universe.

[aaronspink]

Originally Posted by Grall

This is one reason why Intel crushing VIAs and Nvidia's chipset businesses is bad, even for Intel themselves.

If they hadn't done that, they could at least have continued to sell processors while replacement southbridges pass through manufacturing and out into distribution and retail channels. Now sales will if not halt, so at least slow down substantially, potentially for months depending on how long they waited after discovering this errata before they announced its existence and issued the recall order...

you mean the Nvidia chipset which just straight ate your data from day one?