Motherboards Intel Recalling SandyBridge Chipsets (P67/H67)

Agreed.

I feel sorry for all you lovely bit-techers who have purchased SB however, and I apologise for this, I couldn't help but have a little giggle (at the expense of Intel, not you guys, after all it is their bulging wallet that will be affected in the long run, just a lot of stress caused to a lot of people in the process).

 

I definately agree with that , Manufacturers always seem to get it perfect just before its retired , P35 - ICH9R Cheesecake.

 

So what would this cause? Poor SSD performance when plugged into the Intel ports? I got a 3 year warranty and there's no way I'm sending it back unless it starts to suffer because of the issue, not messing around for "maybe"

 

"An Intel spokesperson told PC Pro that the company first noticed the issue last week. Intense stress testing of the chipset led Intel to conclude that around 5% of parts were likely to fail over the course of three years, based on normal usage patterns. That failure rate rises to 15% for heavy users."

Source: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/364867/intel-recall-affects-all-sandy-bridge-pcs

Do you feel lucky punk, well do ya?
/I'll get my coat...

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4142/intel-discovers-bug-in-6series-chipset-begins-recall

The solution is to use only the 6Gbps SATA ports.

And i would say that "No one is happy about this." line is not entirely true. There is someone very happy.

 

Oh well, I was pretty much ready to order my build. I'll hold off now for a few weeks.

 

I hope so! I've got 1 internal hard drive connected to the SATA01 port which is the 6Gbps one.

 

Anandtech are also saying that if you are waiting to buy a SB rig, hold off until April when Z68 comes out. Apparently Z68 is unaffected by this issue (obviously production hasn't begun in any large numbers yet). Z68 will also allow you to use the on chip GPU AND overclock, as well as coming with SSD caching.

 

Quote from Anandtech

Well if they think that they will have a 5-15% failure rate in 3 years, it can't be that bad cant it?

 

Is it worth making this thread a sticky so that it can be seen by those coming into the hardware section for build advice?

 

Totally agree!

And a post on the main page too.

 

Me too...

However if they're shipping to OEMs by end of Feb and full production not back until April I reckon it will more than a few weeks before SB motherboards are back in stock in the usual retailers.

Grrr

 

I can see this saving many people, including myself. I only have two SATA devices with no intention of expanding.

Really glad for that, my P8P67 just arrived to replace my faulty P67A-GD65 which is going back for refund once the P8P67 is installed and running. Would be annoying to have to return both.

 

Something smells fishy here.

Why is Intel announcing this, damaging their reputation and costing themselves huge piles of cash?

If the failure rate over three years is just 5%, and the 1/20 chipsets affected will only see a loss of performance less than 10%, with no risk of damage to hardware then it's really not worth it at all.

I suspect there may be something else going on, otherwise it's an epic overreaction. From what they've said it'll be impossible to tell anything is wrong without comparing benchmarks.

 

I don't know why but I had a feeling something was wrong with Sandybridge - everything was just going too smoothly. My sympathies to those who are/will be affected.

I'm thinking this is a material failure rather than software, right? Some poor bugger's probably going to get it in the neck for this, which pisses me off. If the best people in the job make a mistake, how can anyone else criticise them? Still, $700 million, that's just...silly money.

 

Interesting point Yslen.

Or maybe Intel in fact is trying to increase reputation be ensuring all products under their brand are top-notch and work exactly as they were meant to be?

Anyways sorry for anyone who bought a SB system and also Intel for making some rather expensive mistake.

Its always sad to see an innovative, high-quality company take a hit.

Though probably true, it must be kept in mind that no sole person is responsible. There are the design engineers who made the mistake sure, but then there's the testers and the design reviewers who didnt catch it. Its a team failure.

 

So all we're looking at is a small increase in data transfer times, rather than a complete system meltdown?

Well that is a slight relief, albeit momentary.

 

So if it's not affecting Sata 6gbs and HDD's aren't fast enough to come near saturating 3gbs the problem isn't as big as it seems.
Just use your SSD on the 6gbs port and the HDD/DVD on the 3gbs Sata.

 

From the scan website front page...

Good to see a quick reaction.....




BACKGROUND

Intel Sandy Bridge ** Caution**

Intel launched their Sandy Bridge platform on Sunday 9th January 2011, this launch of the new 2nd Generation of Intel Core Series Processors coincided with their release of the new P67 and H67 Chipset Motherboard Families.
EVENT

31/01/2011 - POTENTIAL PROBLEM

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.
ACTION

31/01/2011

We have 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 urges customers not to panic or be alarmed, as this is, at this stage, considered to be a precautionary measure.

Scan 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, Scan have decided to temporarily suspend all shipment of Sandy Bridge architecture until further notice.

All customers will be contacted over the next few days with regard to the current situation, 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 normally for the time being.

Any required replacements will be handled efficiently, and any further updates will be announced via the homepage on the Scan Website.

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.

If there are any OTHER issues with regards to reporting problems with 3XS Systems, then of course still do so in the usual way, however please avoid contacting us regarding this particular issue as it just swallows up resources on fielding calls, where the information has already been made available via our website, and we will continue to inform of any updates ongoing etc.

Any replacement parts will have their warranty period commence from the date that the replacement is shipped, therefore giving full warranty on the NEW part.
Scan's view on the situation...

"Intel have discovered a bug that potentially could be a problem somewhere down the line. Although Intel have identified a possibility of some CPU degradation, this has not been expanded on as of yet. We see this as a short-term issue, and over the next few days we expect that a swapout procedure will be highlighted, until such times, please continue using your systems as normal."

 

Ouch, I was planning to start building an SB rig in 2-3 weeks time!

On the flipside, this bug only affects the 3Gbps SATA ports (ports 2-5), not the 6Gbps ports (0 and 1). I will only be using one drive (server takes care of mass storage needs) and I really don't want to wait till April. Would it be worth just buying a motherboard this month, keeping Windows 7 running and unactivated using the re-arm trick, then getting a replacement when they come down the pipeline?