My Alienware M17x R3 got a B2 motherboard inside?

Thanks very much for sharing the information.
I also checked this issue online and found the answer on this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/560916-dell-send-me-chipset-rev-b2.html

It seems that most of the hardware checking tools are now reporting B3 motherboard as B2 as the hardware itself is doing so (for compatibility).
As a result, I think my M17x R3 should be fine: )

I doubt they have to respin the motherboard.  AFAIK, the problem is in the chipset, even better it's only a "design related problem of a single circuit".  So the factory will simply have the new revision of the chip shipped to them, and the old shipments of the chip either returned or destroyed.  The rest of the hardware will not be touched.

The only real way is to determine which chipset batch numbers have the sata fault and which ones are good and check the screening/laser etch on the chip itself.  I don't know if the chipset has a UID (unique ID) that can be read similar to the CPU's.  If that was the case, then I'm thinking that there would be a utility out there by now.

I wouldn't panic too much about the fault.  Chris has our back and will notify us when the swap program will take place.

In researching the problem, the only problem you may experience is the dvd/blueray rom/burner and the eSATA port will have degraded performance, as it's on the slower (3Gbps) SATA port that is affected.  The two internal HDD bays are on the fast (6Gbps) SATA ports and are fine.  

The degradation comes from constant usage of the slower SATA ports, the transistor wears down over time.  If it's not used, then it doesn't really wear down. 

In a desktop platform, depending on where the drives are connected, a user may see the problem sooner if the drives are accessed on a regular basis.

Obviously if you're using the eSATA you may run into the problem way sooner than others who are not.

I've seen the Gigabyte utility that claims to ID the problem.  All it does check which ports are in use and recommends that the user connect the devices to the first two ports.  They state that the utility should only be used on a Gigabyte system because they can guarantee that the ports map correctly in the utility, they don't know if other hardware designs follow the same layout.

when I used CPUZ to check the motherboard, it returns me a result that the motherboard is still B2.
* That is an incorrect reading. All of the software out there is reporting this incorrectly. We have notified the software manufacturers and will also do a bios update to address this.

Hi,

I bought my m17x R3 in March. I recently updated my bios to A04. However, CPUZ and HWINFO32 are still displaying my chipset as B2. Does that mean I received the faulty Sandy Bridge board? Is there a way to verify this? Can I get a replacement?

Thanks for your help.

For reference,

A lot of people are having this issue even with A04:

forum.notebookreview.com/.../569546-m17xr3-bios-a04-discussion-3.html

forum.notebookreview.com/.../580365-my-new-laptop-intel-sandy-bridge-issue.html

I tried. It doesnt work with alienware. No instance availiable

Hi,   I bought my m17x R3 in March. I recently updated my bios to A04. However, CPUZ and HWINFO32 are still displaying my chipset as B2. Does that mean I received the faulty Sandy Bridge board? Is there a way to verify this? Can I get a replacement?   Thanks for your help.

I think you can check if you have the faulty cougar point chipset here

I just tried CPUZ and mine says A04  with chipset B3, lucky me :)