# Intel Sandy Bridge 6-series chipsets flawed, recalled



## Runefox (Jan 31, 2011)

The Intel Sandy Bridge 6-series chipsets have been discovered to have a flaw in which SATA performance degrades over time; Intel is working with OEM's to recall all affected products for replacement/repair. Apparently, the chipset's SATA connections actually degrade, causing high rates of I/O errors. If you've got a Sandy Bridge or you're planning to, you should take a look; It affects every Sandy Bridge system currently in the wild. Intel expects to have fixed chipsets shipping by late February.


----------



## Aden (Jan 31, 2011)

Ugh, hopefully this doesn't push back the next iMac release. I'm due for a new computer and I hate the waiting game.


----------



## Leafblower29 (Jan 31, 2011)

That's what they get for having the Sandy Bridge kill switch.


----------



## LLiz (Feb 1, 2011)

Yeah this is just awesome news, we just got 3 x H67 (Sandy Bridge) based motherboards at work, they're all affected by the flaw. 

Two of the systems urgently need to be sent to a remote site this Friday. I am hoping that the 2 x SATA 3 ports will do the job so that we don't need to replace the motherboards.


----------



## Love! (Feb 1, 2011)

this makes me glad my computer runs on an obsolete amd processor :-D


----------



## Runefox (Feb 2, 2011)

LLiz said:


> Yeah this is just awesome news, we just got 3 x H67 (Sandy Bridge) based motherboards at work, they're all affected by the flaw.
> 
> Two of the systems urgently need to be sent to a remote site this Friday. I am hoping that the 2 x SATA 3 ports will do the job so that we don't need to replace the motherboards.


 
The SATA 6Gbps (the SATA guys hate it when you say SATA I/II/III) ports should work fine. However, the chipsets themselves are flawed (as I understand it, it's a voltage problem somewhere; I'm not heavily versed in things that far into electronics-land, but basically someone zigged when they should have zagged when they designed the chipset) and need to be replaced. Gigabyte and ASUS have stepped up and begun offering replacements and refunds, with Gigabyte recommending refunds for now; Apparently they won't be getting high production runs on fixed boards until April. At any rate, if you have an affected board and can't wait that long, you can grab a SATA controller card and get around it, but you'll eventually need to get the board replaced.

EDIT:



			
				AnandTech said:
			
		

> 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.


----------



## LLiz (Feb 3, 2011)

Yeah, I ended up getting a press release form Gigabyte Australia about it. 

Two of the machines will just have to cope with the bad boards, as they need to be sent to Canberra tomorrow, the SATA3 ports will be fine. I'll probably end up getting the MB replaced in the other machine that's still here in Sydney.


----------



## Mr Meatballs (Feb 3, 2011)

(I not tech head)
Does this affect I7 920's?


----------



## Aden (Feb 3, 2011)

Probably not, but there's an easy way to check: did you buy your processor after January 9th?


----------



## Runefox (Feb 3, 2011)

Mr Meatballs said:


> (I not tech head)
> Does this affect I7 920's?


 
This will ONLY affect computers with H67 or P67 chipsets, which are only offered in LGA-1155. The i7 920 is LGA-1366, and isn't affected.


----------



## Mr Meatballs (Feb 3, 2011)

Runefox said:


> This will ONLY affect computers with H67 or P67 chipsets, which are only offered in LGA-1155. The i7 920 is LGA-1366, and isn't affected.


 I have no clue what the hell you just said.
But I gather my PC isn't affected?


----------



## Runefox (Feb 3, 2011)

Mr Meatballs said:


> I have no clue what the hell you just said.
> But I gather my PC isn't affected?


 
No, it isn't.


----------



## Mr Meatballs (Feb 3, 2011)

Runefox said:


> No, it isn't.


 Thank god.
I spent a fortune on this.


----------



## Aden (Feb 3, 2011)

Mr Meatballs said:


> Thank god.
> I spent a fortune on this.


 
If it _were_ affected, a recall means they replace it or fix it for free.


----------



## FF_CCSa1F (Feb 3, 2011)

At least it's not as bad as the FDIV bug.


----------



## xcliber (Feb 3, 2011)

Runefox said:


> This will ONLY affect computers with H67 or P67 chipsets, which are only offered in LGA-1155. The i7 920 is LGA-1366, and isn't affected.


 
Ah, good. I'm safe.
I wish I had a "Thanks" button.


----------

