Intel recalls the Sandybridge Motherboards - P67 and H67 boards affected.

As you may have read, Intel has discovered a bug in the Core 2011 “Sandybridge” Motherboards - this effects the H67 and P67 motherboards. To quote Anandtech:

Intel just announced that it has identified a bug in the 6-series chipset, specifically in its SATA controller. Intel states that “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.”.

The fix requires new hardware, which means you will have to exchange your motherboard for a new one. Intel hasn’t posted any instructions on how the recall will be handled other than to contact Intel via its support page or contact the manufacturer of your hardware directly. In speaking with motherboard manufacturers it seems they are as surprised by this as I am.

For further information about the specifics of the bug, please read the Anandtech article listed above, and their follow-up article - it’s the best summary I’ve found thus far, and they spoke directly with an Intel Vice President so it’s accurate. 

How does this affect you if you purchased a motherboard based on one of these chips from Prophecy?

• At some point in the future, your motherboard will need to be swapped out. It cannot be swapped out at this point, as all currently available boards have this problem. Prophecy will cover all the costs involved in the swap out, including shipping both ways. 
• Thus far, this bug has not manifested itself on a single system that Intel is aware of, so you do not need to worry about your machine in the short term. Intel states that it is fine to continue to use your machine as normal until a new revision of the chipset is available.
• Our suggestion is to run using the SATA 6gig ports (Port 0 and Port 1) on your motherboard in the interim, as these ports are not affected by the fault.
• Should you prefer a refund, we are happy to refund you in full.
• Please note that your CPU is not affected in any way - the bug is in the chipset on the motherboard, not in the CPU. 
• Also please note, that this does not affect previous Intel systems (Socket 775, Socket 1366, Socket 1156) or any AMD systems. If you are unsure if you are affected, please contact us.

It’s frustrating when this kind of problem shows up, and it’s especially frustrating that it’s on such an exciting and high performance product! I know many people will want to switch to an alternative, but the truth is that their is no ideal alternative - you will sacrifice performance moving over to AMD, and moving over to a Socket 1366 (X58) system will cost more.

Rest assured that Prophecy will stand behind you our customers, and will sort you out as quickly as possible. We will update the blog as more information becomes available. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!

Comments

[Arnold]

I had a dream about me at a friend's workplace. I happened to look at his desktop and was amazed at what i saw, it was a dual desktop fused together like a brain would look like, two seperate sides but connected together in the middle to be a whole. Anyways as I was inspecting further it turns out that this desktop my friend was on was 2 to 3 years old already and the processor was at 7.5GHz, and it also had a choice of changing that option,I don't know why but you could lower it to 5.3,3.5,and 2.3GHz processors.who knows what all was in there but I did see the exterior it seemed like it was a standard computer which lead me to wonder,(I wonder how much better are the current desktops that you build on your own at home with the most expensive parts at that time, I'm thinking it probably has a 12GHz processor with a dual motherboard, maybe with 2 i17 chips each motherboard,but who knows,just thought i'd put that out there. Whenever I dream about an item it does come out but in time, so soon we'll see.

[Stephan]

Any news yet on ETA for the motherboards?

[Adminstrator]

Hi Stephan. You can look at a date around mid to end April. Nothing is certain yet and this is just a guess, though.

[Neil]

Do you perhaps have an update on when the B3 version of the asus boards will be here?

[Adminstrator]

Hi Neil. We've heard that some of the boards have arrived. We should be getting stock tomorrow and we will then start contacting customers to start the swapout process. Please note tha we have a long list to go through, so it might be a while before we contact you. We're going to be doing this in batches.

[Kevin]

Can you please confirm if my Intel P67DE Deer Flat Motherboard that I purchased in February will also be subjected to this recall.

[Adminstrator]

Hi Kevin. It is subjected yes. All p67 boards are affected.

[Marius]

Hi, How far in the process are you? I bought mine on 10 Jan. When should I reasonably expect my order to come up for swop?

Thanks

[Chris]

Hi could you please inform us how long this process is going to take its been almost 8 months now. Regards

[Adminstrator]

Hi Marius. We still have a few to do but we should have sorted you out by now. Please van you give our offoces a call on Monday morning and speak to Chris. He will be able to sort you out.

[Adminstrator]

Hi Chris. We still have a few to do but we should have sorted you out by now. Please van you give our offoces a call on Monday morning and speak to Chris. He will be able to sort you out.