Intel Finds Design Flaw in New Sandy Bridge Chipset

DailyTech - Intel Finds Design Flaw in New Sandy Bridge Chipset

from article:

Intel is working to fix a design flaw in its Sandy Bridge chipsets relating to SATA performance...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...has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue...Intel also states that it will begin shipping "fixed" chipsets towards the end of February to its customers...The systems with the affected support chips have only been shipping since January 9th...​

Anyone know how this will effect the R3?
I've been thinking about ordering one, but now I think I will wait until late Feb when the fixed chips start shipping. That is unless of course it doesn't effect the R3

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MOD EDIT:

Since this is an Intel issue and impacting every brand of system which uses the chipset, please continue here - there is a discussion on this already under way in the Hardware section of NBR. Check it out...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...upgrades/551902-sandy-bridge-design-flaw.html

If/when there is some type of official response from Dell, we can create a more specific thread to discuss their response. Until that time, its pointless for us to speculate further here.

Thanks.

-BB
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is it desktop or laptop chipset design flaw?

 

Reading the article, I couldn't find any mention of desktop versus laptop systems. And I'm not familiar enough with chipsets to be able to tell you. It would be great if it didn't effect the R3.

 

And no mention to see if they will recall the chipsets affected.

 

I sure hope those people with r3s have the 3 year warranty this sucks to hear if it affects it

 

I can tell you it directly mentions Cougar Point 6 series chipset, which the R3 has. Now the thing I would question is did this affect all of the 6 series chipsets or just a specific range of them? It points towards the possibility of the R3 being affected but doesn't definitely say yes or no.

 

According to the ZDNET article that was released a few minutes ago, it affects both desktop and mobile platforms using the H67 and P67 chipsets. The M17xR3 is supposed to be using the H67 mobile version.

Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout | ZDNet

 

This is not good news. Intel does say they will work with manufacturers to exchange the faulty chipset. In theory this means all R3 owners will get a new motherboard at some point in the next 6 months.

What I am not sure about is what is going to happen to new orders. Will Dell continue to ship faulty PC or will it delay until it gets hold of the new motherboards?

 

Engadget has a full press release, in case you're interested:

Intel finds Sandy Bridge chipset design flaw, shipments stopped and recalls beginning -- Engadget

Yes, not the best news...

 

this is going to be MESSY.

 

Intel Fail

I don't want a tech support guy to replace my motherboard! This sucks really b ad!

 

Good thing I waited, ether way, it seems like its a long run issue. so all of you guys that bought it, can sit tight until the recall notice comes out and all of your cpus get replaced, until then you all should be fine. Ill try to get in touch with my Intel rep. although he has not been active in my store and get some more intel from him.

 

From the press release. Might not affect some of you early R3 owners... Dell should know what date your chipset is.

"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."

 

At least they are doing the right thing and admitting it and fixing it

 

January 9th is when Intel started to ship Sandy Bridge motherboards. Everyone is affected. There were no Sandy Bridge P67 made prior to that date.

 

R3 order cancelled. Buying a M15x maxed out instead Maybe I can sell it and buy an R3 in a few months when this gets sorted out since you can easily expect plenty of shipping delays and issues to occur over this.

 

I wonder if Dell might even just pause the shipments until this is resolved. It might be less costly for them to do just that.

 

Things happen....its a issue, but I would not say fail by any means.

 

i dont recall another silicon level recall from intel.

sandy bridge is going to be famous for all the wrong reasons.

I hope they fix it in time because if this drags on another few months people are just going to wait for ivy bridge............if that doesnt get set back because of this..

AMD here is your chance.

 

silicon level design fault is pretty serious. this isnt just a bio fix. biggest blunder in intel's recent history. infact i cant recall another call back from intel...

 

Said the article, this may be delayed until April for full volume recovery. If lucky you can have your in-progress order fixed sometime during March. That means 2 more months to wait, I dont think many people would accept that offer. So I think either Dell would have to cancel all orders, or replace by an equivalent processors. For those who have bought the R3 with Sandy Bridge, hopefully you will get some good news soon.
The funny thing is that I can still make order with Sandy Bridge chipset on Dell website. They must have been known this.

 

possibly, but most companies go through low-rate production (and shipping) for testing purposes. If no changes were needed then, most likely, they were used in their first M3's.

I would be surprised if Dell began taking orders for M3 before they received any chipsets (since they only shipped on the 9th).

 

Oh I agree its serious....just saying, things happen. and regarding call back....P4

 

There is no way they are going to take the R3 off their site. The marketing they spent on this launch is too great. They will just delay the shipments until the new chipset comes in. Remember AW does not ship that many PC. Dell might have inventory for those PC within weeks and they might just delay lower margin PC such as Sandy Bridge XPS, Inspiron, etc...

 

so no sandy bridge for the next 2 months............

be interesting to see what kind of effects this has on the computer scene as a whole...........going to be epic

 

Yes
I AMD im waiting

 

I am sure Intel will get it fixed soon enough, and as for AMD's chance...meh...only reason AMD exists is Intel allows them. I am not impressed with AMD. Just sayin

 

Why does everybody keep referencing the CPU's? Unless I misread this doesn't affect the CPU at all it's the chipset only. Your CPU should be fine if I read correctly and the degradation takes time on the chipset, unless Intel comes out and states the chipset will have issues in less than 2-3 months I think most people should be just fine. It's a large issue yes, but not one that should require pulling the products if Intel's paying to fix them after the fact.

 

True, but I dont think most people here anyway will order now, knowing that the MB will need to be replaced in a few months....just my opinion.

 

No the only reason AMD exist is because of anti-trust laws in the USA and European Union. Intel does not have a choice to have a competitor unless they want to be prosecuted by both the USA and the European Union for monopol.

That would end up costing them much more than having a competitor. At the end of the day you could argue AMD is a government company...

PRECISION: When it comes to their CPU.

 

sorry, i should say cougar point instead of sandy bridge. but in reality they are part of the same product. cant have one without the other.

Maybe you are right and not everyone could be bothered with sending it back. but i have a feeling atleast those with easy NBD pickups will return it sometimes within the next year.

But what remains to be seen is what will dell and other manufactures do when they are waiting for the new chipsets. Wait and not ship any sandy bridge/cougar point PCs or keep shipping them and hoping people either dont know about the flaw or cant be bothered with it.

I have a feeling it would be easier for the manufacturers if they just kept selling last egneration i7s for now and wait until intel sorts themselves out. so maybe your right. it might not be a big deal because still plenty of i7 740s around. haha. still a heck of alot faster than phenom IIs

 

Very true wwoods, if it were me and I hadn't ordered yet I'd get relaxed for a few weeks to wait for the issue to be resolved and wait for either a 6970/485m to hit as well. I won't send mine back because of this alone though unless I start to notice issues that points towards it not being a slow degredation or them dragging their feet to fix it.

 

The article clearly says they will do a recall which means Dell will not have a choice but to do it either. It's not going to be up to them.

 

If it's not on their dollar and they don't have to admit to them screwing up why would they care? They could market this to their advantage if they play their cards right.

 

Yep agreed.

 

What does this mean for the those with the M17x-R3 already? I read over on the the articles but I don't really understand what it all I means. (Im just a noob who wants to play games at ultra graphics =p). How will we be affected by this? ie. processor gets slower, or things like that?

Apologize for my ignorance.

 

It means your SSD might BSOD. (Crash) or simply just slow down a lot compared to its full potential.

If you already have an R3, you will most likely get a document in the mail asking you to contact Dell for repairs just like a recall for your car would be.

 

I wonder what the Customer Service line is like today? Bad day to come in to work at the Call Center..

 

Although I'm sure Intel will be paying for all repairs, this will hurt Dell's image - which they've been desperately trying to recover. I wonder if they will go ahead with their L702X launch...which is in a few hours.

 

OMG! one more reason to return my M17X when it arrives

This is really bad news at least they fixing the problem they may have to replace the motherboard so is going to be a mess

 

Its new Intel 6 Series chipset, Cougar Point, has been found to have a flaw, something to do with the SATA controller. Intel is indicating that the ports can "degrade over time," leading to poor i/o performance down the road.

 

I think the R3 they will be fine, again as long as they play their cards right with the customers. I think it will be suicide if they launch a product that is affected that has not been released yet, no idea what chipset the L702x has so it may not even be affected.

 

Disagree. It is not Dell's fault and thus only few people would blame Dell for this. Just like when Toyota recalled their cars, some retailers may be hurt but there's nothing to do with their reputation. My only concern is how Dell would treat customers who already/about to have the new R3 while waiting for a solution from Intel.

 

Exactly ^^^ If Dell treats this the right way they're fine, if they turn it into an "R1 dpc/chipset" issue they're screwed.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. And in any case, anyone who has purchased ANY kind of electronic in the last 5 years should have an extended warranty because it WILL break down. Chip creep is getting more and more common these days and BGA's will crack and most people don't have the equipment to repair them.

If Intel did a recall, Dell *HAS* to oblige to the recall. It is affected and will have to be remedied. Everything is manufactured at the Foxconn facility in ShenZhen anyway so they will just change the manufacturing process, make new boards, ship them out.

I'm not worried right now but I would like to know the technical reasons that this is happening. It doesn't make much sense? Does the interface go bad or what...Data can't start sending at a lower pace over time.

EDIT:

"As Intel notes, the actual Sandy Bridge processor is not affected by this design error, and it stopped shipment of chipsets that are hampered by this SATA performance degradation problem."

Noone else will be seeing their laptop until they get the new boards unless Dell already has a full stock of them.

 

I wonder how many canceled orders happening about now......

 

*EDIT* NM, definitely a design problem.
They say it's a design fault but I'm guessing it's some manufacturing process that wasn't as good as they had thought. Most likely caught when running their quality checks.

 

News so far -

only ports 2-5 are affected (your HDD and ODD are 0 and 1)

in Intel's words, this does not guarantee a failure but a strong degradation of performance over extensive use(i.e 2-3 years)

 

Got a url ?

 

I work with apple and best buy, we have an Intel rep that just got back to me, although he has not been to active with us. But one sec ill find something to credit this.