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

rickss69 said:
I never speculated on the cause bonehead.
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Really? Did you read the title of the thread?

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036794509&postcount=213

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036794469&postcount=209

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036794318&postcount=206

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036793679&postcount=189

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036793470&postcount=186

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036792543&postcount=172

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036792416&postcount=168

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036792396&postcount=166

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036792306&postcount=164

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036792286&postcount=163

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036791603&postcount=141

I think I've made my point. Have a nice night.
 
rickss69 said:
The only point you have made is you are a complete idiot. ;)
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Nice rejoinder. I take it you were on the debate team in high school?

Anyway, enough of the sideline discussion, back to the topic at hand. Anyone heard anything semi-official from Amazon?
 
Intel has their own tool for stress testing (read "overclocking"). How else do you think they could replicate/estimate degradation graphs in a few days? You are an utter fool to keep posting your nonsense.
 
Forceman said:
Nice rejoinder. I take it you were on the debate team in high school?

Anyway, enough of the sideline discussion, back to the topic at hand. Anyone heard anything semi-official from Amazon?
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Amazon told me my issues has been "sent to the correct department" and to wait "3-5 business days" for a response. More generic corporate speak.
 
Evil_Furby said:
So does this mean I should wait or return my Pro board to Amazon? The lack of concrete info is incredibly frustrating. I could build the damn computer if I knew I wouldn't get bent over regard exchange/RMA.
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If you return it to Amazon and get credit, you'll likely have to pay return shipping and be without a computer for 8 weeks.

Or, you could be patient and use your system (since there is likely nothing wrong with it as it is) and wait for Asus to replace it with the fixed chipset.

I really hope either Intel or Asus pays shipping because I'm going to be irritated if I have to pay to ship this in.
Forceman said:
Anyway, enough of the sideline discussion, back to the topic at hand. Anyone heard anything semi-official from Amazon?
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I personally don't feel this is Amazon's responcibility. It will be a lot easier to just go through the manufacturer themselves.
 
I spoke to an Intel rep yesterday and I thought I'd share this info with people here. I have been reading for a while on here and have received some great information and maybe this is my modest way of giving something back.
In particular, some may be interested in the failure description provided below (highlighted).


General Info

Chat start time


Feb 2, 2011 5:25:31 PM EST

Chat end time


Feb 2, 2011 5:59:42 PM EST

Duration (actual chatting time)


00:34:11

Operator


Daniel



Chat Transcript

info: Please wait for a site operator to respond.
info: All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
info: All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
info: You are now chatting with 'Daniel'
Daniel: Hello. Thank you for using the Intel Customer Support chat service. We are glad to be of service. How can I help you today?
******: hi
******: I am inquiring about the newly disclosed flaw in the Cougar Point chipset
Daniel: Ok, what is your inquiry ?
******: I contacted my motherboard manufacturer (Asus) and the agent I spoke to hinted that the chipsets they are using on their motherboards may not be affected. Is there any truth to that? i.e. are all chipsets shipped by Intel affected, or are there some exceptions?
Daniel: At this point, Asus* will have the last word since yes there are exceptions to the issue
Daniel: What we can tell,
Daniel: desktop systems using the Intel® H67 and P67 Express Chipsets, and mobile systems using the Intel HM67 and HM65 may be affected by this issue. Intel recommends that end users contact their place of purchase or system manufacturer for more information.
******: Is Intel involved or does it have influence on how the motherboard manufacturers will handle this issue, i.e. return/warranty policy/extensions, etc?
Daniel: The issue will be handle directly by the places of purchase and different system manufacturers
******: ok
******: so back to your comment, can you please elaborate on the statement "yes there are exceptions to the issue" if possible.
Daniel: What do you need to know excuse me?
******: I mean are there specific silicon fabs that are not affected? or is it just that the rate of failure differs from chipset to chipset
Daniel: yes there are chipsets that are not affected at all by the issue
******: Is there a way for end users to identify such chipsets or is this information only available to the motherboard manufacturer?
Daniel: that information is handled exclusively by the manufacturer or OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturers)
******: Alright, fair enough. I guess I'll wait till Asus figures out what is and is not affected.
Daniel: ok, any other inquiry you may have ?
******: meanwhile though, does Intel have any information about what conditions can cause the failure to occur or accelerate its occurrence. I know the advice is to avoid using the SATA 3Gbps ports, but if that is not possible for someone, are there any recommendations as to how to reduce the likelihood of a failure occurring, or at least delaying such failure.
Daniel: This issue has been root caused and is attributed to reference circuitry used for clocks going to SATA Ports 2-5
Daniel: SATA ports 0 and 1 are not affected and systems that only utilize SATA ports 0 and 1 are not susceptible to this functional issue
Daniel: There is no reason to be concerned about eventual failures since the risk of imminent failure is extremely low.
******: But if someone has no option but to use one of the affected ports, is there a way to reduce the likelihood of a failure? or vice versa, it is know what which conditions usually cause the failure to happen faster?
******: extremely low != 0 though :), and since replacements will not be available for another 2-3 months, it would be very beneficial to know how to reduce the risk since not using those ports is not an option unfortunately.
Daniel: as stated before, you should not see functional issues
******: What kind of performance degradation are we talking about? Does Intel have any numbers on how slow the SATA interface becomes or whether it may become completely inoperable?
******: Also if the problem occurs, do all ports 2-5 become inoperable?
Daniel: no at all,
Daniel: the ports will degrade with time ,that is it. We don't any numbers regarding this issue since it was recently determined
******: ok fair enough
******: so there is a chance all ports 2-5 will become inoperable?
Daniel: that may happen correct
******: There are conflicting reports that this fault may cause data corruption on HDDs attached to affected ports. What is the accurate assessment as far as Intel knows?
Daniel: Data saved or stored prior to the functional issue on a SATA device will be retrievable when re-connected to a working SATA port. In conditions when the port is not available at boot, data transactions will not occur.
Daniel: If the SATA issues occur during transaction, the CRC checksum will allow error detection and software will attempt recover the data transaction. If the condition persists, the port may drop and the application may become non-responsive.
******: I guess that is all I have to ask for now. Thank you for your time Daniel. Have yourself a nice day.
Daniel: you too!
Daniel: Thank you for using chat. We value your suggestions and would appreciate it if you would take a moment to complete our survey. The survey will appear when you click "Close'' to close the chat window. Have a nice day.
 
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Gary Key said:
Update - We will have full details of our replacement program up in a couple of days along with a dedicated website for customer care.
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Thanks for all the info Gary, I appreciate all the help you provide here.
I spoke to someone at Asus yesterday and they were not sure whether the cards would be eligible for the Premium Service RMA once replacements are available. That sure would be a great way to reduce downtime for affected people or those who would like to be on the safe side and have their boards replaced.

Personally, I am not sure if I want mine to be replaced, not yet anyway. I currently just use one of the SATA 3Gbps ports for my optical drive and still have an extra 6Gbps port available on the Marvell controller for future expansion. If at all possible, I would prefer if Asus extended the warranty period to 5 years for this particular issue. This way, I would have no problem hanging on to my board in hope it does not fail, but if it does, I would also have the confidence that I will be covered for the typical life of a PC build in my case. Also I am not sure, but maybe this is a cheaper way for Asus to deal with the issue since many people may also be more willing to hang on to the boards until they fail (if they fail) instead of going through the costly RMA.

Anyway, just some feedback. Looking forward to more info from Asus, but for now I am personally not too worried.
 
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I called Asus support from the page about the recall to see if there was any updated info. They just directed me right back to the website. :(
 
bigdogchris said:
I
I personally don't feel this is Amazon's responcibility. It will be a lot easier to just go through the manufacturer themselves.
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For me, I'd rather order a new board from Amazon, wait until I get it, and then send the old one back for credit, so hopefully they'll just extend the return period. Not sure Asus will do cross-ships - aren't they pretty much referring everyone back to the reseller?
 
rickss69 said:
That's funny, but in all seriousness you guys will probably never encounter this unless you are heavily overclocking. :p
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I can understand, 2, maybe 3 drives dead, but 8? At some point you gotta realize you are doing something wrong.

Ya, I wanna get to work really fast so Ill drive really fast, but if my 97 Dodge Stratus with 275K KM on it starts shaking once I get faster than 100km/h, Im not gonna go any faster just because im in a hurry.

So if you are at 5ghz, what are you really doing with your pc that would make you want to go up to 5.1ghz.

Ya its nice to test the limits, but if you lost 2 or even 3 drives at 5ghz, wouldnt it make sense that on the 4th drive, maybe you should dial it down to 4.9 or 4.8? I mean thats still really frigging fast, even for high end gaming.
 
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Tumdace said:
I can understand, 2, maybe 3 drives dead, but 8? At some point you gotta realize you are doing something wrong.

Ya, I wanna get to work really fast so Ill drive really fast, but if my 97 Dodge Stratus with 275K KM on it starts shaking once I get faster than 100km/h, Im not gonna go any faster just because im in a hurry.

So if you are at 5ghz, what are you really doing with your pc that would make you want to go up to 5.1ghz.

Ya its nice to test the limits, but if you lost 2 or even 3 drives at 5ghz, wouldnt it make sense that on the 4th drive, maybe you should dial it down to 4.9 or 4.8? I mean thats still really frigging fast, even for high end gaming.

Btw, your responses just make you sound like an uneducated tool, and a jackass. Calling people bonehead might do that.
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You clearly have no clue what goes on in the overclocking world. What I do has nothing to do with gaming. You think I am uneducated and finish your statement with insults...you are doing nothing with your post but trolling.
 
Tumdace said:
So if you are at 5ghz, what are you really doing with your pc that would make you want to go up to 5.1ghz.
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You do realize that this is an enthusiast oriented website, correct? If we were all satisfied with an A to B computer, we'd all own shitty Dells and play Farmville all day. If you need any other reason besides "why not" pertaining to why you'd want to get 5.1 over 5.0 -- you are clearly not even in the enthusiast bracket of overclocking.

Also, unless he was really abusing the BLCK, I'd not expect any SATA damage. That is simply a fault of the board exacerbated by the overclocking.
 
The only reason I can see for this is the overclock somehow pushing more volts through the chipset causing degradation. All my clocks were 100x51,100x52, ect. Most settings in bios were auto with the exception of vcore (1.52) and dram (1.70).

SBcpu-z.jpg
 
zambarossa said:
Daniel: If the SATA issues occur during transaction, the CRC checksum will allow error detection and software will attempt recover the data transaction. If the condition persists, the port may drop and the application may become non-responsive.
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I think this is a simple but logical conclusion. Data loss is possible if you are using the system to create new data and the final bit of degradation occurs. A long-term issue, according to Intel.
 
velocci said:
rick, what kind of heatsink and fan are you using to be able to OC to 5.3ghz?
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That would be a Boreas TEC in my case. Others are doing much more with air coolers tho. Seems to be luck of the draw atm with the cpu's and motherboards.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
This is what a rep from N.C.I.X emailed me:

Me: Bought an asus p8p67 deluxe board on Jan 12. Will I be able toexchange my board for a new Z68 board when they are released? I'll pay the difference.

N.C.I.X: The exchange would be treated as "defective merchandise" (so no restocking fees etc), so I do not see why not. No solid ETA for Z68's as of yet, though.

Me: So is there any kind of time limit for this defective merchandise exchange? I read the Z68 will be released Q2 2011, which means sometime between April and June. Would I able to exchange even in June? And I could do it in store and not have to ship the motherboard, right?

N.C.I.X: Well, we have no solid ETA for the Z68. We do not have concrete details about the timeframe of eligibility to exchange the board yet, but I'm sure that others would have a similar question, so we'll look into it. In-store or ship, your choice, whatever is more convenient for you.
 
wongnog said:
N.C.I.X: Well, we have no solid ETA for the Z68. We do not have concrete details about the timeframe of eligibility to exchange the board yet, but I'm sure that others would have a similar question, so we'll look into it. In-store or ship, your choice, whatever is more convenient for you.
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Would love to know the outcome, if I can simply walk into the store, exchange for the Z68 when its available and pay the difference - that will be service!
 
I hope so too. With them claiming it is defective merchandise, I would think that means you can return it anytime for full money back, then buy whatever you want. I really hope this happens.
 
Would be nice if I had some local joint like Fry's close by so I could go walk in and exchange. Alas, nothing local for me.
 
anyone just call asus? lol I got all the info I needed. Get a case register. and they will send u one in advance then u can send yours back after you get the new one.
 
MrGiggles said:
anyone just call asus? lol I got all the info I needed. Get a case register. and they will send u one in advance then u can send yours back after you get the new one.
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what is a 'case register'? do you mean call them and confirm that you have a registered sandy bridge motherboard?
 
wongnog said:
Yes, it allows you to overclock your CPU like the P67 while using the on-die GPU like the H67. So P67 + H67 = Z68
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I see this as being of interest to only a relatively small group of people...mainly because the on-die GPU is still weak compared to discrete graphics. It would be great for a HTPC type use, however, or for those who just don't care about fast graphics (even though that Quicksilver (??) video encoding is interesting).
 
Just called Asus, got my product registered, given a case number, and was told that was as far as he could go.

He mentioned something about probably doing advanced RMAs, which I have no problem giving my CC number to for, because as soon as I get the new board (i work at a computer shop) it will be litterally a 15 minute swap, testing etc, and get the old board sent back within a day or 2, so I am not worried.

He also mentioned they are putting every SB customer into a seperate little database so that they can roll out the RMAs with alot less hasle down the road. Sounds like they are on top of things already.

I didnt expect anything else from him, he already gave me as much info as he knew, so I said my goodbyes and hung up.

Now I wait until March/April I suppose.
 
SilverSliver said:
You do realize that this is an enthusiast oriented website, correct? If we were all satisfied with an A to B computer, we'd all own shitty Dells and play Farmville all day. If you need any other reason besides "why not" pertaining to why you'd want to get 5.1 over 5.0 -- you are clearly not even in the enthusiast bracket of overclocking.

Also, unless he was really abusing the BLCK, I'd not expect any SATA damage. That is simply a fault of the board exacerbated by the overclocking.
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I understand this what this board is completely 100%.

But dont you think if you are blowing up hard drives left and right at a certain frequency that perhaps maybe that is your limit?

Otherwise dont complain when you have blown up 8 hard drives trying to find the sweet spot of your motherboard.
 
Tumdace said:
Just called Asus, got my product registered, given a case number, and was told that was as far as he could go.

He mentioned something about probably doing advanced RMAs, which I have no problem giving my CC number to for, because as soon as I get the new board (i work at a computer shop) it will be litterally a 15 minute swap, testing etc, and get the old board sent back within a day or 2, so I am not worried.

He also mentioned they are putting every SB customer into a seperate little database so that they can roll out the RMAs with alot less hasle down the road. Sounds like they are on top of things already.

I didnt expect anything else from him, he already gave me as much info as he knew, so I said my goodbyes and hung up.

Now I wait until March/April I suppose.
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I did the same, got an RMA # with ASUS but have also been in contact with my retailer ++++. Either way I hope I'll be covered. Move all my drives to the SATA3 ports, only have optical drives on the SATA2 ones so I feel pretty safe.
 
Might be worth holding off until Asus gets a new revision or two of the original board out,
not just the chipset change.

The current board seems very 1.0 with it's sleep and memory compatibility errors?

I assume the window to swap boards will be a long one think I might wait or just go for a refund and get a z68.
 
Puyol said:
Might be worth holding off until Asus gets a new revision or two of the original board out,
not just the chipset change.

The current board seems very 1.0 with it's sleep and memory compatibility errors?

I assume the window to swap boards will be a long one think I might wait or just go for a refund and get a z68.
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Why not register now, then at least they know that you are aware of the issue and it makes it that much easier for them to arrange for repair/replacements, because they can get a general idea of how many people are gonna need a new mobo.

Plus, if you wait till they announce that replacements are available, I guarantee u will be waiting on the phone longer than the 15 minutes I was just to talk to a rep just to get registered.

Anyways, aside from this, I just rep the updated return policy from my etailer, and they said they are accepting returns once the new products are in, as they are labelling current 1155 motherboards as defective.

So Ill just return it, get a Z68, and be on my merry way.
 
Tumdace said:
Why not register now, then at least they know that you are aware of the issue and it makes it that much easier for them to arrange for repair/replacements, because they can get a general idea of how many people are gonna need a new mobo.

Plus, if you wait till they announce that replacements are available, I guarantee u will be waiting on the phone longer than the 15 minutes I was just to talk to a rep just to get registered.

Anyways, aside from this, I just rep the updated return policy from my etailer, and they said they are accepting returns once the new products are in, as they are labelling current 1155 motherboards as defective.

So Ill just return it, get a Z68, and be on my merry way.
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I can't really see the point of going through ASUS as long as a person has a retailer that's going to be easy to work with, like Newegg, Microcenter, etc.
 
bmg said:
I can't really see the point of going through ASUS as long as a person has a retailer that's going to be easy to work with, like Newegg, Microcenter, etc.
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For those who care, and I see no reason why it should be censored, but N C I X was my etailer, and they were the ones saying they would offer full refunds.
 
Obviously we all get refunds or replacements, they would be sued to death if otherwise.
The real question is are they going to send us new motherboards, then have us send ours back to them after making the swap. Or do they want us to send in motherboards, then wait for the replacement in the mail. The first option is good, the second option is absolute BS.
None of them have made this clear in their pathetically uninformative messages to us.
 
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We are still waiting for official word on this from ASUS. Nothing solid yet.
 
bmg said:
I can't really see the point of going through ASUS as long as a person has a retailer that's going to be easy to work with, like Newegg, Microcenter, etc.
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I bought at MC, so it gives me two options to consider. I'd prefer swapping at MC because if that board has problems I can exchange it easier (which is one reason I bought there in the first place). But, what if MC doesn't get inventory until late April, and Asus can do it early March? What if Asus offers a Z68 option, but MC just has the existing P67 chipset? Whatever, I'm registered at Asus and MC already emailed me about the recall. I'll just sit back and wait it out and do whatever is the best deal for me.
 
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