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

A problem requiring a "silicon fix" is bad news in the chipset business, and sadly that's what Intel is announcing. 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. All shipments have been stopped and a fix has been implemented for new deliveries, but it sounds like recalls will be starting soon for those with this ticking time bomb silicon within. It isn't a critical problem right now, though, so if you own a Sandy Bridge Core i5 or Core i7 system keep computing with confidence while looking for a recall notice, but it is bad news for Intel's bottom line: the company is advising a $300 million hit to revenue.

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


More info: Here and Here

That sucks, makes me glad I'm not in a big hurry to do my new build.

If you read the press statement, apparently this is a problem with Intel mobile sandybridge, not desktop.

But it could spread like a plague, ha! :lol

Best news for AMD, and AMD fans in years. They should roll out Bulldozer now and get the best press possible.

We still have at least 2 more months before Bulldozer is released. Intel's stock is taking a beating, and AMD is up. Investors will quickly forget about this problem soon, and it will be business as usual.

+1^

The Market over reacts to everything. Always has, always will.

There's nothing in the press statement that identifies mobile platforms as solely having the problem. But regardless, the problem is with the chipset, not the actual microprocessor. Still, nice QC Intel!

http://newsroom.intel.com/community/...nting-solution

so is the problem with the cpu or the mobo?

the egg still has both for sale on the website

Here's an analysis of the problem by Anand Tech, http://www.anandtech.com/show/4142/i...-begins-recall

That does suck alot of u guys have been waiting for sandybridge but ill allways be a amd fanboy

gar... i just bought my notebook on friday.

Now, do i sit on it and wait, or just return it and keep the cash?

I'd check with the place of purchase, and see how they want to handle it. You have a limited time for a refund. If it were me, I'd return it, and wait to purchase again.

If i were you i'd send it to krone for "experimentations." :lol

Seriously?! What the fcck intel?

Not cool :shun:

Wow, the sata failure is a pretty significant issue too. I wonder how this will impact rig down time for a lot of people.

My brother just called me from Microcenter asking me questions about Sandy Bridge chips because he was going to build a new system.

I told him the news and he wasn't happy about it. He said they pulled all the P67 boards but were still selling the ones running H67 chipsets.

Hope it doesn't take too long to get this worked out.

Sure is something to come home to. Well, this keeps a few dollars in my pocket for awhile longer and may lead to a full out bulldozer build if it impresses.

1155 sockets no longer available on the EGG as of right now.
Chips and mobos both removed.

Quote:

We have found 0 items that match "2600k".

From: www.anandtech.com

Wait until it bites $300 million into their net revenue this quarter. The investors will howl about it.

:lol:lol:lol:lol You mean that line will go even FARTHER down?!:lol:lol

I wouldn't doubt it.

Surprised that Newegg just pulled all 1155 mobos and cpus but did not put up any information about the recall issue.

Newegg has put up a "Deactivated" notice for the CPUs as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-070-_-Product

Holy ****, what a disaster and incredible waste of resources. Imagine all those motherboards that will go in the trash.

Why not just use another cpu? Why throw motherboards out? Heck, just keep them until april.

I meant that motherboard manufacturers will probably just throw the boards with the recalled chipsets out. As far as I know, chipsets can't be replaced.

*sigh* Looks down at sandy bridge.... :whailin:whailin:whailin

Hopefully the problem doesn't last too long.

In the mean time I'm okay. I've got a couple more i7's to tide me over.


Let us not forget AMD's TLB bug in the Phenoms and Opterons in 07 :)

Oh by the way, I read on Anandtech I believe that the SATA III ports are unaffected. So if you can get away with the few ports that they give you, you have nothing to worry about

You know, I think the last time they had to do a recall was the original Pentium - 16 years ago. There is still one of them with the bug collecting dust in my parent's basement. All things considered, I would say that's a pretty good track record. Bummer for current owners, though. Sounds like you will all have to wait to see how the OEMs are going to handle the recall.

It's the Sata II (Sata 300) ports that are affected. The SATA III ports (SATA 600) are fine.

The only thing attached to my SATA II ports is an optical drive. I'm fine. :)

I remember the floating point bug. Intel seemed to have survived that and I'm sure they'll survive this.

Ah, yes. My professor talked about that pentium bug.

This is all a big hapoola. Turns out that only the SATAII port is affected. Everything else should be unaffected, so... I don't see any cause for concern.

Does this mean I can pick up a really inexpensive SB if I'm willing to live with it? :lol

Probably. :lol

Hell, you could probably get away with using a SATA III PCI card or something.

So why did they pull the cpu's when the issue is the chipset on the mobo's?

Beacuse people would buy CPUs thinking they could get a board later but they wont. Or buy a 1155 CPU with a 1156 board.

I'm guessing because without a board the chips are useless.

EDIT: Crab Boy beat me to it. :lol

Given that all SB motherboards have this affected chipset, and there is no 3rd party chipset available (beside SATA III ports), might as well stop the sale of the processor. No motherboard = no processor.

And probably is a preventive measure to stop that bright fellow from installing a 1155 processor into a 1156 motherboard... Why, wasn't there a picture floating around the internet about someone ruining a $600 GPU because they wanted to install it into the AGP slots? (8800GTX at launch or something).

Sure they can. It's just another chip, looks about the same as a de-lidded CPU. There's no reason to chuck the motherboards in the trash. Just pull the heatsink, replace chip, sell. ;) No problem.

As for me, I'm still running strong with my 5GHz-daily Sandy Bridge build, and loving every minute of it! There's not a single thing wrong with my rig at this time. If something eventually starts to go wrong, then hey, I'll take my free motherboard upgrade from the recall and continue on my merry way! :bigpimpin

If anything, this makes me happy, because only me and a few others got in on the ground floor, and at least for a while, it's only me and those other folks who will get the exclusive right to run a 5GHz quad. :p Sucks to be the people who waited too long to pull the trigger!

:rolleyes: Alpha users... :lol

:D (10 char)

According to the news releases, Anandtech, Bit-Tech, Tom's and others, it's not supposed to be an acute problem (other than the financial disaster!) The chip sets work and work well. With extreme testing, however, (heat room and over volted) there seems to be an increased leakage in one or more voltage gated transistors in the #2-#5 SATA pathway that COULD lead to degraded performance over time. It wasn't in the test chips but it apparently came with the changes to the "B" stepping of the chip sets, the ones that actually shipped. There's no report that I've heard of where people are actually experiencing failures with the platform. I do recall an early review on a board where the Native SATA was slower than the bolt on and there was question why. Mighyt have been Gigabyte board on Anandtech, just don't recall.

So, in any event, it doesn't look like anyone's going to be sitting on the side of the road with a dead board while they wait for a recall/replacement. Might be a good time to twist it's tail and see just what they'll take if it looks like a big recall.

But if you already have a board and are fine with it and haven't bought your cpu yet, you're pwnd. Or if you got a bad one, or blew yours up will you be able to rma through the distributer since they pulled them? Just saying, surely there are a few on the short end of this stick.

Glad I don't have to deal with this

/AMD fanboy

Let's not forget the TLB bug.

F00F bug O.o

its must have caused enough failures already for it to come to the surface though.

Nice though if you are unaffected at the moment, you can still use it until details of recall get sorted out.

Wonder who's gonna pay shipping on all this!?!?

This is from Anandtech article which suggests that optical drives are not safe either.

Hehe, that was the first thing I told my wife after I told her about the recall. Like most other, I guess I'll just see how far I can push this thing, and if/when it goes boom, get a new one and start over :eek:

I should have been more clear.

I only use my optical drives to install my OS. I'm fine.

for those who are looking for a sandy bridge processer ebay is still selling them and at pretty good prices but there going fast so if you want 1 you better hurry and get it now

for those who don't know make sure the seller has a good rating before you buy as people will try to take advantage of this situation
http://computers.shop.ebay.com/Compu...=p3286.c0.m282

+1
even though i feel this will soon become a flame bait thread.

glad i stayed with my 1366 I7 hehehe.

supposedly some places in Poland are already selling 990X's

some places have put sandy bridge procs back up for sale. if i do build sandy bridge i will wait for the Z6x chipset or go 2011 all together :)

all and all even giants make mistakes and in every aspect of the world as well. just fix it and move on

my wife did this, shes been trying to fix me for 12 years now. I think Intel will fair better.

lmao i know what you mean.

Its the same for us guy as well. I can take apart a pc down to it utmost smallest components and rip apart a motor put it all back together and make it run, It follows logic.

now women follow NO LOGIC when they break it just better to get a new model which will still be broken anyway lmao.

of course all of this happens the day after i order my 2600k :eek:
but i think it will be ok and im not gonna worry about it
i get my stuff on thursday and im gona be :D:D:D on that day :hat

un4givn has forgiven:confused:

lol wut????

Poor pun :shun:

Glad you got your new rig coming:thumbup:
I was going to order a 2600k and Asus something or another mobo Friday but this whole mess slammed on the brakes for a benching/crunching rig I was planning.
Already had the HDD and RAM, with a TX650 psu on the way:cussing:
There goes my 3D hwbot points for 3D on 9800GT, GTS450, and 2x5850's, not to mention 2D.

Who's got a 970/980x for sell:):helpme

EDIT::lol Elusive 920's appear on newegg now http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ame=LGA%201366:rolleyes:

i returned my sandy notebook and picked up a late model sony vaio in its place. not sure if i really needed to, but now i have a bigger screen and a better quality notebook.

We had to pull all of our mobo's yesterday. We even had customers trying to exhange bad ones. LOL

Shiiiiiiiz, just got my 1155 like less than a week ago :(

Hi,

Glad now I bypassed Sandy for Ivy now, and when Ivy Chip
and boards are released going to give it a couple months to filter
out before pulling the trigger on them.

They will get it straight but sure a hassle for those who pulled the trigger
right away.:(

No stock in Intel!

Later:D

I'm gonna wait since my chipset was purchased from Fry's on the 14th and wondering if Fry's or asus will return the board for a 'fixed' version or upgrade me. Either way, Im gonna try to milk this situation.

From what I heard any mobo will be replaced with the new chipset. Microcenter will be getting the new chipset late Feb.

same got letter from Newegg.
I just have to move my 2nd drive to sataIII and dvd drive will just have to suffer for next month or so.

Was gonna use the sataIII for a SSD. now defiantly gonna wait.

gives me an excuse to rewire the system anyway, Sucks i'm on water though and have to redo that but whatever.

They better do cross shipping. any news on that ?

I'm not sure what NewEgg policies are but I know that all manufactures are paying for shipping to and from. Well that's what I have heard.

supposedly this is costing Intel somewhere in the 700 million bones range

My sister is applying for a job with Intel, on the eve of this apocalyptic event. I am disappointed.

I guess this shows its probably best to wait a month or so after a new release before you jump on the bandwagon. I know Ive been catching the fever.

Got an e-mail from MicroCenter today about the recall. They say replacement boards will be available in eight weeks. The good part is that I'll just be able to go to the store and exchange it right then and there, without having to ship it back to Gigabyte or Intel or whatever. So kudos to MicroCenter for handling it in-house!

Anyway, here's what they said:

eNews Update: Important Information
Micro Center: computers & electronics

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

An Important Announcement regarding Intel(r) Series 6 Chipsets

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Intel has recently identified an issue with their 6 series chipsets,
which are used with all their 2nd generation Core processors
(code-named Sandy Bridge). This is a potentially serious issue, but it
should not affect your data, just your system's performance. Intel believes
that consumers can continue to use their systems with confidence, while
working with their computer manufacturer for a permanent solution.

However, some users may see degradation in the performance of SATA
devices attached to the system, whether internal or external (such as hard
drives and DVD drives). Intel is not aware of any end-user who has seen this
issue yet, but they expect it to affect a significant percentage of users
eventually, and to worsen over a three year period.

Please be assured that Micro Center will stand behind every customer who
purchased a system or a motherboard from us that features this chipset.
Intel has already made the necessary change in the manufacturing process
to correct the error, and properly functioning replacements will be available
in approximately 8 weeks.

To minimize the disruption to you, we suggest that you continue to use your
system until replacement parts are available. At that time, we will contact
you with instructions regarding how to get your motherboard replaced or your
system repaired.

PLEASE NOTE: There is no problem with the Intel 2nd Generation Core Processors themselves.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused by this issue,
and our assurance that we will keep you informed of any further developments.

For additional information, please visit:
http://l2.microcentermail.com/C2L/jj.aspx?pid=uy5qnqzHiLU$&odid=PMpgFjGllv4$&sid=9NH a6UTSEa4jiJ5kTCDTQQ$$&aid=Uc6d0XfhsyY$&URL=L2_llqa lf8u0lmZOPCD9jQSp2iq1TlfFq5LYuWhWhbNziLGEhph07cq5Q NA_hbVhE3sm0x6p3g-kv5d-BVrQuSJXEOXUphh6LUnSh8ymFHiBSIxFBiRD3wkWbojB3dA6ua kxP1xGU4dqKvxoDezOYVUFmEh2ePDxO-Kd1EPT5lxDVfd9Z2abjXlZ047aBiUO&

I am sure they will. How ever I am not very thrilled to ship my motherboard in and wait for them to process it for return. What do you suppose the downtime/return time would be?

I would rather be able to purchase another motherboard and return the defective board after I am up and running again.

I liked the fact that we were doing that. No reason to make the custo to have down time on a new product

Props to MC for doing it, hopefully others follow suite.

No doubt, MC is worthy of praise, and not just for this recall incident. Their customer service is genuinely excellent on a consistent basis.

I've bought five CPUs there so far; two 555 Black Editions, an i7 920, an i7 950, and most recently my 2500K. On the 555 Black Editions, not only did MC have the best price, but both times the salesman went and found a specific batch I asked for that was most likely to unlock to a quad. Both of those 555 chips ended up being 4GHz quads for me. And of course the other processors I bought there were considerably below market value as well.

And when I bought my 2500K, the motherboard I chose to go with it (GA-P67A-UD3P) was competitively priced there. I made a point of buying the mobo there to reward MC for their amazing CPU prices. I'm sure that's what they have in mind when they price their CPUs, and they deserve it. But in the end, it's going to be a reward to myself that I bought it there, because I'll be able to just go to the store to exchange it instead of shipping it somewhere and waiting.

It's a great system: Good karma from MC to me, back from me to MC, back from them to me. And back to them again next time when I buy there again. Amen.

Yeah MC has prices that will take on even eggy, i had bought numerous things there and their employees have always been awesome about everything, recently it was a swiftech XT block. Thats more than i can say for the employees over at tiger direct/compusa in hofman estates.;)

So to confirm, there is no unlocked intel processor of current generation that has an overclockable motherboard for sale from retailers like newegg or microcenter? That being said, should I still get the 2500k now for $180 because I wonder if that price will last once either the replacement stock gets shipped out or when the new intel chipset comes out.

anything with a K in the name is unlocked as far as for jumping the gun i would wait till the revised chipsets come out.

there is nothing wrong with the Procs, its the chipsets on the mobo that are deemed to go out.

so you can buy the proc now and wait or wait and buy the whole monty or even wait for the Z6x chipset its your choice.

h3ll i might even be building one sooner or later if the 2600k is faster than my I7 965 EE, then it might be time to bump my lil monster down to second pc duty and use the 2600K as my gaming rig Maybe maybe not have not made up my mind but it will not happen for a while im buying a town house (hopefully) so i gatta wait for that to clear first.

This is an E-mail I got from Newegg about my P67 mobo.

Dear Customer,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to serve you. Newegg has recently become aware of a design issue that is affecting recent models of Intel Sandy Bridge platform motherboards. We are working with Intel to identify the exact nature of this problem.

As always, Newegg remains 100% committed to our customers' total satisfaction. In keeping with our commitment to our customers, we are extending the return period for your motherboard by 90 days or until replacements become available from the manufacturer, whichever is greater. Intel expects to have a new revision of the P67 & H67 chipsets out around April, at which point first-run motherboards with this issue will need to be physically replaced in affected systems.

From a technical standpoint, the design issue can be bypassed fairly simply by not using the Serial ATA (SATA) ports that are affected. Your motherboard’s manual should identify your SATA ports by number, and at a minimum you should see ports 0-5 (6 ports in total) listed. Ports 0 and 1 are Sata Rev. III (6Gbps), and do not appear to be affected by this problem. Ports 2-5 are SATA Rev. II (3Gbps) and should not be used. For a thorough explanation of this hardware work-around, please refer to our video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJcE2alQPvY

If you choose to use the hardware work-around option, there is no need to contact us at this time. We have your information on record and will email you as soon as the replacements become available. If you would like to discuss this with our tech community or read up on the latest updates, please visit our EggXpert forum:
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/682006.aspx

If none of the above options are suitable to your needs and you wish to return the board at this time for a full refund, please email us at intelsandybridge@newegg.com and include your sales order number so we can help you out with your return.

If you have any concerns, please contact Newegg Customer Service for further information and assistance.

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Your Newegg.com Customer Service Team




The flaw hasn't been a problem for me, so I just look at it that I get a nice revision upgrade in a few months. I just hope they'll send the new mobo out to me first, or I may just keep this flawed board indefinately.

You won't see any difference in games...

Keeping the flawed board will mean lower resale value.

I know its just a matter of the I WANT IT part. lol so far its not been strong enough for me to warrant buying one:)

I found out the other day that it won't be until late April for the replacements to be released.

Did any OEMs have systems available? (Like Dell or HP?)

No, all mobo's were recalled also.

They're going to start shipping parts again. Just the unaffected ones though, ones with only Sata6 ports are shipping.

http://slashdot.org/story/11/02/08/1...dy-Bridge-Chip

Nice find. They should have never pulled the all SATA 3 port boards. I still think that there is more to it.

That's ok, I haven't sold a motherboard yet. I keep em till they die...:lol

yeah I am like that too im willing to loan them out but i get attached to my shiznit.

Additional Comment:

H3LL must have FROZEN OVER

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/new..._praises_intel

Nvidia CEO PRAISES INTEL for handling chipset debacle

Attaboy, i7 920. Attaboy.

Dont know if anyone else has noticed but Newegg is getting a few 1155 mobos back in stock, they sent me an email 3/3/11 telling me about it

The egg has an Asus for $365, the MSI they had is out of stock. Hopefully more by the beginning of the week.

Im waiting for my GA-P67A-UD4 to come back out so I can trade mine in for the new one

Newegg has a bunch of the P67 Asus boards and the Gigabyte UD3 board now