Recall on Sandy Bridge chips

Saw this as well, I placed an order for a 8300 on Friday, wondering now what I should be doing, cancel it and wait or will Dell be holding shipments until they have the new parts in hand.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 31, 2011 - As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel® 6 Series, code-named Cougar Point, and has implemented a silicon fix. 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 chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel's latest Second Generation Intel Core processors, code-named Sandy Bridge. Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue.

The company expects to begin delivering the updated version of the chipset to customers in late February and expects full volume recovery in April. Intel stands behind its products and is committed to product quality. For computer makers and other Intel customers that have bought potentially affected chipsets or systems, Intel will work with its OEM partners to accept the return of the affected chipsets, and plans to support modifications or replacements needed on motherboards or systems. The systems with the affected support chips have only been shipping since January 9th and the company believes that relatively few consumers are impacted by this issue. The only systems sold to an end customer potentially impacted are Second Generation Core i5 and Core i7 quad core based systems. Intel believes that consumers can continue to use their systems with confidence, while working with their computer manufacturer for a permanent solution. For further information consumers should contact Intel at www.intel.com on the support page or contact their OEM manufacturer.

It's a great rig & the i7-2600 is blazing fast! This is just very disappointing.

I tried tech support & they said they haven't heard about this.

Presumably since the news just broke today, Jan 31, 2011.

Dell and all other OEMs will need to work with Intel on this problem, so don't expect a resolution overnight.

I'm lying down under a banana tree for a week to give Dell a little time to organize their recall.  They'll need to swap boxes as I'm not able to swap motherboards myself...

I'm lying down under a banana tree for a week to give Dell a little time to organize their recall.  They'll need to swap boxes as I'm not able to swap motherboards myself...

Most likely they will dispatch techs to replace the boards.. Replacing the whole system may happen but not on a wholesale volume would be my guess

I read an article today that indicated intel expects a 5% failure rate within 3 years with communication to serial ATA devices with the faulty chipset. They said only the SATA 2 ports are affected. No damage to attached devices. The xps 8300 tech page states 2 x SATA 2 ports and 2 x SATA 3 ports. I have asked the question about which of the 4 ports are which but have gotten only the picture from the service manual which does not specify ,,, just lists position sata0, sata1, sata2, and sata3.

If indeed I had 2 good ports (the SATA 3, 600Bb) and only a 5% chance the others would fail I would considar a solution that included a 200 dollar rebate and a free internal SATA port card instead of an entire new motherboard ... opinions??

I would like to know whats going to happen with people like me who ordered an 8300 but it still says in production. will production of the 8300's stop and i wont get my pc till say april?

Will all existing orders be cancelled?

I would like to know whats going to happen with people like me who ordered an 8300 but it still says in production. will production of the 8300's stop and i wont get my pc till say april?

This is what I'm trying to find out, and it would be helpful to get an answer from Dell ASAP here.  I placed my order on Friday, I need to know if I should be canceling my order (if I even can cancel it now that it's "In Production"), or will Dell be doing the smart thing and pausing shipments of these computers until they get the fixed parts in.....what's the sense in shipping out a part they know they'll have to replace.

I see that Newegg has stopped selling all the 1155 socket motherboards with both the P67 & H67 chipsets.   I would imagine that Dell will be doing the same.  This is what Intel released:

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 31, 2011 - As part of ongoing quality assurance, Intel Corporation has discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel® 6 Series, code-named Cougar Point, and has implemented a silicon fix. 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 chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel's latest Second Generation Intel Core processors, code-named Sandy Bridge. Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue. 

The company expects to begin delivering the updated version of the chipset to customers in late February and expects full volume recovery in April. Intel stands behind its products and is committed to product quality. For computer makers and other Intel customers that have bought potentially affected chipsets or systems, Intel will work with its OEM partners to accept the return of the affected chipsets, and plans to support modifications or replacements needed on motherboards or systems. The systems with the affected support chips have only been shipping since January 9th and the company believes that relatively few consumers are impacted by this issue. The only systems sold to an end customer potentially impacted are Second Generation Core i5 and Core i7 quad core based systems. Intel believes that consumers can continue to use their systems with confidence, while working with their computer manufacturer for a permanent solution. For further information consumers should contact Intel at www.intel.com on the support page or contact their OEM manufacturer.

I ordered an 8300 on the 15th, and a colleague at work followed suit on the 17th. We're both System Analysts, and keep well-versed on technical matters.

As of yesterday afternoon, when the recall broke, neither of our orders had shipped. We both immediately called Dell to find out what was going to be done. I was told Dell did not know of the recall yet, and I should call back the next day. My friend was told (by a different rep obviously) that "Dell has known about this for a week or more" and "has already received upgraded boards from Intel [!!!], which is what we will ship to you". Unfortunately, I would have to assess these latter comments to an over-zealous sales type, as it certainly would appear even Intel hasn't got any new silicon produced yet.

Long-story-short, both of our orders shipped overnight! So obviously the halt hasn't affected Dell yet, and now we'll have to wait to see what the "already received" remedy will be. I really hope it will not be a ship back scenario!

Until then, I'd be happy if Dell could answer: 1) How many SATA headers are on the motherboard, 2) which two are the 6G/s headers, and 3) which are the default HD and DVD drives plugged into?

I am not from dell, but here are my findings:

Port 0 and 1 should be the SATA3 ports (6G/s), and port 2 and 3 are the SATA2.

The blu-ray drive and hard drive were plugged into port 0 and 1 when shipped to me.

So, unless a hard dive/optical drive is added it wouldn't really affect you (besides the fact it is faulty and should be replaced still)

My friend was told (by a different rep obviously) that "Dell has known about this for a week or more" and "has already received upgraded boards from Intel [!!!], which is what we will ship to you". Unfortunately, I would have to assess these latter comments to an over-zealous sales type, as it certainly would appear even Intel hasn't got any new silicon produced yet.

Yeah, it's tough to say.  It would make sense that the really big OEMs like Dell got some advance notice of the problem before Intel just dropped a press release on the world.  Problem being Intel was asked yesterday how long they've known about the problem and the reply was not long at all, the problem was identified sometime last week and the cause/fix wasn't identified until near the weekend.  So either Intel lied about that (unlikely) or the Dell rep, like you said, was just an over-zealous sales person.

I'm new to these boards, do these threads ever get responses from Dell representatives?  If so it would be real nice to get some kind of comment from one......

I have ordered a Alienware Aurora R3 on January 30, and spent an hour on the phone yesterday trying to get an answer, did not go any where except the fact I was assured my order will be on time! :emotion-7: and they do not know about the recall, and I am trying to relay to the guy on the phone that I am not concerned about the order being on time, all I care about is that I am not getting a defective product.

I also sent an email to Sales support and yet to hear back from them, I have always built my systems and this is a first time ordering a pre-built machine and I have to say the support and response from Dell has been disappointing.

My order still shows in Production, I hope they stop it on time.