intel series 6 chipset flaw

After doing a bit of research I purchased hp dv-4 3016tx laptop. This laptop has plenty of features like the latest sandy bridge processor and 1 gb ddr5 hd 6750 graphics card. One day while surfing the net I came across an article about the sata bug in the latest intel series 6 chipsets. Unfortunately my laptop has that series 6 chipset. Here is the linkto that article
http://www.intel.com/support/chipset.../CS-032521.htm
Intel has issued a recall order for all chipsets of this series with stepping b2. I used various methods to determine my chipset stepping and found out that my stepping was b2. I immediately informed hp customer support and there they directed me to this link
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... 4#notebook
In that link it is clearly mentioned that if the fourth to sixth digits of your serial numer are greater than or equal to 108 then your laptop does not have the faulty chipset that is the chipset stepping is b3. It also says that because of some bios issue third party software show the chipset stepping as b2 instead of b3.

I used several methods to determine the chipset stepping of my laptop and they all show my stepping as b2. So I am in a dellema now. The only proof that hp is giving me is the serial number of my laptop and that proof dosen't sound good enough to me. All third party software show that my chipset stepping is b2. The olny certain way of identifying the chipset stepping is to look for the s-spec no. The link provides the details
http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/specupdate/324646.pdf
How can I find out the s-spec no of my chipset?
Do I need to open my laptop for that?
Will that void my warrenty?
Can a hp service center check my chipsets s-spec no?
Why isn't hp fixing this bios issue thats responsible for third party software showing the chipset stepping as b2?
Does any one else have a new intel series 6 laptop from hp?

 

For starters, please don't post your entire post in capitals.

You may want to check with HP, but by the time they did the recall, the flaw in the SATA controller had been fixed. Fixed chipsets may still show up as B2.

 

I hope someone can help with finding the proper and actual stepping version of your notebook, but if it is a basic system with a single HDD and single optical drive and does not have a second (wired...) drivebay or an eSATA connection, then it is irrelevant if it is a B2 stepping or a B3 stepping chipset.

Why? Because you will never be able to use the potentially defective ports.

So, do you have a two bay drive notebook and/or an eSATA port?

If not, just enjoy your system as it cannot possibly be affected by this issue without those two additional ports onboard (and enabled) to use one or more of the potentially defective Ports 2, 3, 4, 5.

Good luck.

 

sorry for the all capital post..will keep that in mind in my future posts.

 

@tilleroftheearth: i just have and hdd and a dvd burner that is two sata devices. i have this software called the intel rapid storage technology and it shows that my hdd is connected to port zero which is flawless. But it also shows that my dvd burner is connected to port 3 which has the flaw and this worries me.

 

the thing is that can i trust hp. they say that if the fourt to sixth digits of your serial number are greater than or equal to 108 then you dont have the faulty chipset. in my case the fourth to sixth digits are 109. so according to hp i dont have the faulty chipset. But all third party software and methods for determining the chipset stepping of my laptop show that my chipset stepping is b2.
is there any way that by looking at the hardware i can identify the chipset stepping?

 

That's all that I would need to get them to return/exchange the system in question. I would return it first before I accepted an exchange, btw (because your return window is 'reset' on the next system - not so with an exchange).

Simply tell them that you want to (in the near future) remove your optical drive and use an adapter to put in a HDD (to use your system with an SSD and HDD setup).

I would not accept any other answer except an exchange at the minimum or a full refund as the 'best' solution. No matter what assurances they give that the notebook will have no issues. I would trust what the RST driver is reporting more that what HP is trying to get away with.

Good luck.

 

Most of the 3rd party programs are still reporting B2 stepping, even though it CAN be B3 stepping.

I would exhaust all routes before deciding you want to take it back if the only reason is the possibility of a faulty chipset.

Good luck

 

Also check to see which two SATA ports your hdd and dvd are using. If they're both Sata6 and you don't have eSata ports, even if you had the defective chip (which is extremely unlikely), it wouldn't matter. But as most people said here, windows device manager reporting B2 does not necessarily mean your chipset is faulty.

 

I wish HP would release the dv4-3016tx in the US.

 

Not sure if he has the B2 stepping - but the optical drive is on a SATA2 port.