ASUS Policy on Cougar Point based MBs? (Intel Recall)

Maaaaaaaaaaaan, well this sucks, my setup works perfectly @ 4.6ghz and I dont have the patience or the time to even think of any RMA return torture :(
 
Gary Key said:
The Sabertooth series has a fiver year warranty but the rest of our current and recent board series has a 3-year warranty. Where did you get the one-year warranty information from on your board.
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I got a P8P67 Pro from N C I X and on the bottom of the site it states that it was a one year warranty (it was NOT part of a combo pack, I bought it standalone). Every other asus board ive gotten was 3 years thats why I was a bit confused.
 
Neb said:
If they're replacing the chip on your motherboard, it's not a refurb, it's a repaired motherboard :p Still, the option to repair your motherboard instead of issuing you a new motherboard is normally stated in the warranty terms. Even though it's an extraordinary situation, Asus would still be well within their rights to simply repair your motherboard.

I'm curious to see how they're going to approach the RMA process, since SMD rework isn't exactly quick, easy, or cheap.
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Well as long as they simply replaced the chip and everything was fine, I would be happy. I just dont usually have faith in any company every looking out for their customers the way they should. Maybe Asus will come through for me, Im hoping.
 
Phantom_2k5 said:
Maaaaaaaaaaaan, well this sucks, my setup works perfectly @ 4.6ghz and I dont have the patience or the time to even think of any RMA return torture :(
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So don't bother rma'ing it. No way I'm screwing with RMA even if a port or two goes bad over the next couple of years. I've just got my dvd drive and my bulk storage/media server drive left on the 3gbs ports now. If one of those ports degrades or dies it'll be pretty obvious, so it's just a matter of switching to another port. If they all died I'd just move that non performance critical stuff to a pcie or pci based sata card, even an old pci based sata1 card I've got in the junk box would be fine.There's always the 2 esata ports from the jmicron controller I could turn on and use if needed. If I could still get another 2600K/P8P67 pro combo I'd probably buy it tomorrow to upgrade my second pc.
 
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4LC4PON3 said:
I was going to order my Sandy Build today until I saw this so at this moment its on Hold. I will NOT gamble my money at this point.
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I was going for a new build too ordered mine today, I instead went with the i7-950 route. It's currently $200 right now and the board is $240 (Rampage III mATX). Same price as if you have gotten an i7-2600k with a ASUS p8p67-m Pro. Which was the route I was going for.

Only taking a 5-10% hit performance on stock clocks, overclock it to 4.2Ghz and it's almost like it never happened.

I couldn't wait a month+ for the Sandy.
 
Milena said:
Why does everybody on the internet act like sandy bridge motherboards are completely broken just because the old SATA-II ports will maybe break in 2-3 years for 5% of the users ? How many of them will actually keep their board that long and still rely on the old ports to this day ? All the panic about this problem is ridiculous. Our future HDD/SSD's will be SATA-III most likely anyway and i rather enjoy my Sandy Bridge than going through all the RMA hassle just for this and ending up with some refurbished board.
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Buy a new board in 2-3 years you say? Sure! Send me the money for it and for new memory, graphics card.... I know some people are--but I'm not rich. So, yeah, it's a big deal to me. I'd never have bought it if I'd known it was broken by design. Kept my P3B-F from 1999-2010 and used a 2003-era K7S5A-Pro from 2010-2011. So yeah--it's a big deal. Ideally I'd like to upgrade at least every 5 years if I can--and that's a big if 'cuz money's not exactly running out of the tap. :/
 
I'd love to see a step-up ability, ie -- when Z68 comes out we can step up for a small fee. Get's faulty boards out of the system, and makes the enthusiast market happy.
 
I dont mind RMA, if they replace the entire board I hope they offer one of those replacement deals where theyll send you the board first, then you can them them the one you have to your not left out without a MB for a week or 2.
 
Pastuch said:
AQ OC I have exactly the same PC as you. Whenever I plug my U3S6 card into the bottom PCI-E slot on my P8P67 Pro it causes my PC to no post. Please try your U3S^ and let me know if it has the same issue.
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I now have the Asus u3s6 card installed in the bottom PCI-E slot on my P8P67 Pro.

It posted fine on the first boot, but after Windows loaded (Win764), it then just rebooted. Upon the reboot, it recognized the u3s6 and installed drivers for both the nec usb 3 and the Marvell sata controller.

IIRC, I have the mobo Marvell controller turned off in the UEFI, but I had installed the drivers in Windows prior to disabling it. Also, I have this same card installed on the p35 mobo with this same version of Win764 installed. I didn't do a fresh install.

I have an HD connected to the usb 3 port on the card. I'm going to do some testing to see if it really works. Maybe I will test one of the sata ports too.

Let me know if you guys have any questions...not sure if I know why you guys are having troubles, but I will try to help if I can.
 
I just got this email from Newegg:

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 [email protected] 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
 
Just got an e-mail from NewEgg. They are offering a refund or will contact P67 owners when replacements are available:

"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 [email protected] 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!"
 
AQ_OC said:
I now have the Asus u3s6 card installed in the bottom PCI-E slot on my P8P67 Pro.

It posted fine on the first boot, but after Windows loaded (Win764), it then just rebooted. Upon the reboot, it recognized the u3s6 and installed drivers for both the nec usb 3 and the Marvell sata controller.

IIRC, I have the mobo Marvell controller turned off in the UEFI, but I had installed the drivers in Windows prior to disabling it. Also, I have this same card installed on the p35 mobo with this same version of Win764 installed. I didn't do a fresh install.

I have an HD connected to the usb 3 port on the card. I'm going to do some testing to see if it really works. Maybe I will test one of the sata ports too.

Let me know if you guys have any questions...not sure if I know why you guys are having troubles, but I will try to help if I can.
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After connecting an HD to the sata port in the u3s6, I then booted up. Well, double boot. But it eventually boots, then Windows crashes to off (no image on screen). I believe it came back (started booting again), then once the desktop shows, its gone again (yellow light on monitor). This time I had to power the machine on again....but after I do the machines boots fully into Windows. I test the HD to see if all is well, copying several GB of files and running cyystaldiskmark. Then, I power down once again. Reapply power, system fully boots into Windows - no double boot or crash to off. Now I'm typing this.

This seems a bit strange to me.

I still have the on-board Marvell controller disabled as well as the estata controller. Maybe I'll test all of that tomorrow night. Time to sleep now.
 
Goldensky said:
Buy a new board in 2-3 years you say? Sure! Send me the money for it and for new memory, graphics card.... I know some people are--but I'm not rich. So, yeah, it's a big deal to me. I'd never have bought it if I'd known it was broken by design. Kept my P3B-F from 1999-2010 and used a 2003-era K7S5A-Pro from 2010-2011. So yeah--it's a big deal. Ideally I'd like to upgrade at least every 5 years if I can--and that's a big if 'cuz money's not exactly running out of the tap. :/
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None one would have bought it knowing it was broken...and it's not by design that its broken...and it's not necessarily broken. It's flawed....meaning there is a potential for performance degradation over time.

This entire thing is out of hand on the forums.
 
AQ_OC said:
None one would have bought it knowing it was broken...and it's not by design that its broken...and it's not necessarily broken. It's flawed....meaning there is a potential for performance degradation over time.

This entire thing is out of hand on the forums.
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Agreed. I'm surprised people with 775 CPUs have something negative to say.:rolleyes:
 
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AQ_OC said:
None one would have bought it knowing it was broken...and it's not by design that its broken...and it's not necessarily broken. It's flawed....meaning there is a potential for performance degradation over time.

This entire thing is out of hand on the forums.
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The 5% figure is for every motherboard that has been sold, and is heavily biased by the fact that it is counting on the vast majority of people hardly touching the affected SATA ports.

If you're a heavy user of those ports then the chances of having an issue sky rocket.

Falling into this category I'm rather concerned and until the effects of the issues are clarified have limited what I'm doing to not put load on those ports.

If I could get away with the 2xIntel 6Gb/s and the 2 Marvell ports I wouldn't care, but I also use 3 of the 4 SATA II ports.
 
duncanm said:
The 5% figure is for every motherboard that has been sold, and is heavily biased by the fact that it is counting on the vast majority of people hardly touching the affected SATA ports.

If you're a heavy user of those ports then the chances of having an issue sky rocket.

Falling into this category I'm rather concerned and until the effects of the issues are clarified have limited what I'm doing to not put load on those ports.

If I could get away with the 2xIntel 6Gb/s and the 2 Marvell ports I wouldn't care, but I also use 3 of the 4 SATA II ports.
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Skyrocket I did on my Asus WS Revolution...I lost every hdd/ssd OS install (8 total) before the news became public. The ports are now unusable. Of course I was benching constantly at 5.3GHz tho...:p
 
Im having a curious issue now, it cant be related to this issue (or could it) but lately ive been hearing my hard drives spinning down and then why I try to access them through My Computer, it takes a bit for them to come back up (5-10 seconds) and then I hear them spin back up.

Curious thing is that its happening to 3x SATA 2 ports, and my WD Black 500GB on one of my SATA3 ports.

Should I be alarmed? I am pretty sure I disabled all the power features in windows that would shut down the drives.
 
bmg said:
So don't bother rma'ing it. No way I'm screwing with RMA even if a port or two goes bad over the next couple of years. I've just got my dvd drive and my bulk storage/media server drive left on the 3gbs ports now. If one of those ports degrades or dies it'll be pretty obvious, so it's just a matter of switching to another port. If they all died I'd just move that non performance critical stuff to a pcie or pci based sata card, even an old pci based sata1 card I've got in the junk box would be fine.There's always the 2 esata ports from the jmicron controller I could turn on and use if needed. If I could still get another 2600K/P8P67 pro combo I'd probably buy it tomorrow to upgrade my second pc.
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bmg hit the nail right on the head, the potential issue is actually pretty minor and the only real mess is the public response to this issue.
 
You won't be so cavalier when you lose your entire hdd. I could live with it on the bencher for a bit, but if it was my daily or gamer it would be pitiful.
 
duncanm said:
The 5% figure is for every motherboard that has been sold, and is heavily biased by the fact that it is counting on the vast majority of people hardly touching the affected SATA ports.

If you're a heavy user of those ports then the chances of having an issue sky rocket.

Falling into this category I'm rather concerned and until the effects of the issues are clarified have limited what I'm doing to not put load on those ports.

If I could get away with the 2xIntel 6Gb/s and the 2 Marvell ports I wouldn't care, but I also use 3 of the 4 SATA II ports.
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I understand your points and I would feel the same way if I needed to use all 4 3 Gb/s ports. That is why Intel, vendors, and retailers are making plans for users to get fully functional boards. But it does take time.

I'm hoping that when the time goes, NewEgg will let me return my board (due to flaw) while also letting me order a new one. I want to have the new one first, so I can install it and have minimal downtime. Then I will return the other one. This, IMO, is the only reasonable solution. They can let me order a replacement but secure it will my credit card. I understand that they need to get the old board back.

But all of this freaking out and saying untrue things is not helping anyone. (Not that you did that). I do get that this is a big inconvenience to everyone, but that is how it goes when you order brand new, non-user tested stuff. Hey, I bought Google TV!!! :)
 
So from what I understand when the new motherboards come out, I will be able to just send in my P67 Pro board to Asus and they will replace it with the new revised board?
 
zod96 said:
So from what I understand when the new motherboards come out, I will be able to just send in my P67 Pro board to Asus and they will replace it with the new revised board?
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I haven't heard that from anyone. Where exactly would you send it? I want to send mine back to where I got it, Newegg. I think that is what Newegg will make happen.
 
AQ_OC said:
The chipset problem is not supposed to result in data loss...only loss of performance.
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As an example of an edge case what if you were messing with the partition tables when the interface failed.

As a non edge case of which I don't know the answer, Windows does a lot of background reads and writes with existing data to optimise drive performance, what if the interface fails while this is going on.

I've asked people to link where Intel state there is no risk of data loss, I've also searched fairly thoroughly myself and so far I can find nothing definitive.
 
Ender Wiggin said:
bmg hit the nail right on the head, the potential issue is actually pretty minor and the only real mess is the public response to this issue.
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Oh ya it wont be a problem when my 4 other storage drives die and I cant access any of the data on there unless i fork out another 200 bucks for another motherboard.

It IS an issue, and we have every right to know how it will be remedied.
 
Then in your case using the four 6G ports is not a practical solution and your problem will only be remedied by you dismantling your system, packing up the motherboard, driving to your local carrier and sending back your motherboard now for a refund or as a RMA in the next few weeks or months.
 
Ender Wiggin said:
Then in your case using the four 6G ports is not a practical solution and your problem will only be remedied by you dismantling your system, packing up the motherboard, driving to your local carrier and sending back your motherboard now for a refund or as a RMA in the next few weeks or months.
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Or purchasing an SATA II adapter as a temporary fix ( assuming you have a free slot ).

Definitely one of the options I'm considering, which is why I wish Intel would make a definitive statement on the risks of data loss so I'll know if I'd be wasting my money or not on such a purchase.

My supplier is pretty bullish about the lack of risks, but the fact that they plan to continue selling SB gear no matter what and their reps are flaming anyone that even brings up the idea of data loss makes me question their objectivity.
 
Good idea, I would do that rather than take apart my system, if you have a make & model recommendation please let us know...
 
AQ_OC said:
None one would have bought it knowing it was broken...and it's not by design that its broken...and it's not necessarily broken. It's flawed....meaning there is a potential for performance degradation over time.

This entire thing is out of hand on the forums.
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I agree this is really getting out of hand. Many people don't even take time to read the technical information correctly. Here are some facts.
- The data on the HDD will not be lost
- The manifestation of the problem could be by a loss of performance (hard to detect), but more likely your HDD will disappear from your configuration and coming back.
- However it is not correct to say that you have 5% chance to see the problem and only in the future. This number is a probabilistic computation based on tests done by Intel frying overvoltaged chips. But you have to remember that Intel do zillion of tests before releasing their chip and this problem was not found before release. This means that the problem has been reported by customers and reproduced by Intel. This also implies that some people already have the problem (I know one guy in France that was loosing his HDD each time he was performing heavy operations on it). If you do not have currently the problem chances are high that you will not see it before the exchange of the board.
 
Well, I've already paid and received my i7-2600K, 8GBs of Corsair Vengeance and a Thermaltake Frio. Mobo is paid for and somewhere on the road to Greece where I live, I'll just go ahead and build the system and then exchange the mobo for a newer one when the recall is available.

Since ASUS P8P67 Deluxe has 4 ports not affected, I'll be able to run 1xSSD 2xHDD 1xDVDRW on the ports without using the affected SATA2 ports. If you don't use more than 4 ports of your mobo you should be perfectly fine till the recall comes out.
 
DrCoolZic said:
I agree this is really getting out of hand. Many people don't even take time to read the technical information correctly. Here are some facts.
- The data on the HDD will not be lost
- The manifestation of the problem could be by a loss of performance (hard to detect), but more likely your HDD will disappear from your configuration and coming back.
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I don't believe the first part of this and I also have not seen Intel say "this will not lead to data loss". Anytime I have encountered HDs failing to show up in randomly, data loss or rebuilding RAID arrays would soon follow. Not all data transfers are reliable if they get cut off mid stream, especially when this type of stuff happens while the system is powered on and using the drive.
 
Talked to SuperBiiz. They said if it is opened, to try and send it to Intel. Riiiight.
 
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