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Intel Recalls New Chipset-Based Motherboards
VD writes "Intel Corp., world's largest chip maker, has made a serious mistake, which led the chip giant to recall its recently launched 925 and 915 chipset based motherboards. Intel reported the problem to be with the ICH6 and requested that motherboard makers recall their motherboards from the channel. The chip maker has agreed to pay compensation to motherboard makers for the losses." There's also a Reuters story as well.
Right now, I wouldn't want to be in the pants of the engineer responsible for the gaffe... We all make mistakes, but few of us can hope to make mistakes that cost hundreds of millions to our employer.
Well, Rueter's made it sound like no big deal, but I think its a bit of a confidence killer. Looks how issues with a small subset of a product seem to taint it for life: overheating/crushable AMDs, P4s need super-expensive RAM, GeFroceFXs require a leafblower, etc. Release bugs seem to follow computer parts in spirit well after the flaw is corrected.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
How about some useful links instead of the same link repeated three times?
In general, a mistake by one competitor does not give me more trust in another. Less trust in the former, yes.
The customer is going to pay for Intel's mistake, in many ways. They will have to foot the bill for it, and they will be without computers for a while, unless they have their old systems. How many of you keep old systems lying around? I've got a backup system on hand, but it certainly hurts to have to use it!
Customers will think twice before being early adopters for Intel, and that is when prices go up.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I was looking for one of these yesterday, and couldn't find one advertised on the sites I normally hit...only abit jank, no genuine Intel pieces.
I guess my jetnoise athlon can hold on for a few more weeks.
*sigh*
This time A times B times C equaled more than the cost of a recall.
Don't Panic
it seems like everytime AMD puts pressure on Intel, Intel rushes and screws up in some way, like this. The P3 1.13ghz comes to mind.
Through Xbox Live?
That this is not a more frequent occurence. Any company that pushes complex technology the way Intel does will always run the risk of this happening. Its no big deal, they are going to fix it and make reparation. From Intels point of view the most damaging part is the marketing boost AMD get from this.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Oh, lord... The comedic value to be had in that line alone...
Were the ones who reported that loss to be "minimal" either Windows or Linux users? In any event, the inability to boot would certainly negate my ability to download that evil free stuff off the internet, so perhaps Intel just mistakenly released their DRM version ahead of schedule.
Interestingly enough, the intel ad that /. slapped on the article didn't mention the recall...
We all know that Intel puts all their equipment through a strong Quality Assurance check. They run tests on computer equipment that others in manufacturing envy.
Do we really accept that these motherboards had a bug? Or was Intel trying to paper launch the motherboards using hardware that was still being worked upon?
Mistakes like these do not happen due to QA or engineering. They happen due to the upper levels of the company pressing a product and tossing a coin in the air that it may work properly long enough to buy them time to get the engineering down.
Intel needs to restructure their company. Their products and arrogance of the past few years has led them to market the entire computer industry out of some really good products.
AMD does not have the capacity to supply the World the chips and does not have the cash to buy fabs off of Intel. With Intel tripping and unable to keep up with AMD, all innovation in the CPU industry is put on hold until the market demands updates in speeds.
Remember Intel claimed this:
10 GHz CPUs on the P4 Architecture.
Socket Technology was at its maximum speed. The Slot was the only way to advance CPU technology.
AGP was needed due to the PCI bus not being able to continue advancements.
We do not need 64-bit desktops yet.
Perfect Voice to Voice language translation.
I am done listening to Intel trip up. Intel = AMD in 1997 at the moment. Maybe for their employees sake, they will get things put together before we find an accounting error trying to sustain a broken company for enough time to fix product issues.
A little more info here:Intel Grantsdale Recall
..the guy who brewed the capacitor mix for Taiwan.
You buy new shit, consider yourself a beta tester. Waiting a few months to let others find these problems has always seemed smart to me, and I really don't feel like I lose anything.
Oh no... it's the future.
Wow... Haven't we sung this song and danced this dance before with a previous ICH revision? I seem to remember Intel making a similar request/demand of board makers before because of MCH issues, with a similar offer of compensation. Hasn't Intel learned from past mistakes? C'mon guys... just one more reason to use non-Intel (AMD! PowerPC!) hardware - keeps you away from this sort of trouble.
Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
I have a few pIII 1.13 tualitins here, and love them. For approximately 10W you get 80% of the performance of the fastest pIV, as measured on our own math/memory benchmarks. On solar power, this really makes a difference in what it costs to run our lan. And, oh yeah, with the right heatsink, no fan, or a fan with a 30 ohm resistor in series is enough, and they are nice and quiet. We DO have a beowulf...of these, and it rocks. Running Fedora Core 2 at the moment. http://clab.mystarband.net
It's ironic in that if Intel was a software (only) company, this probably wouldn't make a headline. If they were a software company, the customer would probably end up paying for the fix. You have to wonder what it would be like if software was developed and tested with the same rigor as hardware. Instead, software is often pushed out the door, chock full of bugs, and it's the customer who ultimately pays the price. Of course I'm generalizing, I understand there's plenty of quality software out there, but much more poor quality software. The obvious explanation is that software is of lesser quality because it can be; it can be patched, and with great efficiency these days via auto updates, whereas hardware doesn't afford the same benefit.
nT
For one thing, this news is 2 days old now. Thanks for staying current. :rolleyes:
For another, this is not a design flaw, it was a manufacturing flaw- a thin film substrate wasn't completely removed from the chipset before the chips were sent out to the mobo manufacturers, and they believe that the "recall" will only affect, at most, 1000 motherboards.
Lastly, there are no video cards available on the market that can be used on these motherboards, as they can use ONLY PCI Express video cards, not AGP. Therefore, virtually noone can even use the boards yet. Early adopters? I doubt if there are any yet.
Oh yeah, one last thing- I'd like to know what manufacturer doesn't use chipset based motherboards???? The poster of this article sounds like he was just trying to raise a ruckus, without even being informed about the issue.
Listen to my experimental-industrial-techno!
Maybe they can pin this on the blue man group?
What is ICH6?
GETPKG - Package Management for Slackware
I, for one, would welcome our new Intel chipset overlords....
This isn't as big a problem as it sounds. None of the motherboards made it out to consumers.
Educate yourself, shitforbrains.
http://www.thetechzone.com/display.php?i=72&p= 1
Companies like VIA, nVidia and SiS just produce more when deemed faulty
Do you have to link 5 times to the same article? Even the Intel link goes to the article.
He's referring to the earlier attempt to push Coppermine to 1.13GHz, which failed miserably.
Actually, considering the trend to not provide any kind of warrently, i.e. all returns to orig. manufacturer, you have to wonder if reputable vendors have any incentive to carry the most current versions either.
'cause Dell consumers eat everything that Intel craps...
C'mon Dell, you people suck!
"Now should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."
But since I have karma worse than that of satan... no one will ever get a chance to read this. *sigh* Such is life.
Maybe someone is browsing at 0, or -1?
Geez, how many of you purchased a computer within the week period of June 7th-14th, less than three weeks ago?
How many of you have already put non-backed-up, irreplaceable data on a machine less than 20 days old?
Quit complaining. You should be applauding Intel for saying so quickly, "Oops, we screwed up, freeze those shipments of chips" instead of trying to release some ineffective firmware patch too late before giving up and recalling it a few more months down the line, or something like that. You shouldn't be whining about the temporary loss of a brand-new computer, other than that you wanted to play around with it and install some more software.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Good thing I'm still using my chipset-less motherboard. It's just a bus!
The screw-up was with the PIII 1.13 Coppermine (8.5 x 133), which never ran within the thermal envelope, even at the factory. I don't think there's a 1.13 Tualatin PIII - only a 1.10 (11 x 100) Tualeron and a 1.26 (9.5 x 133) Tualatin PIII-S.
I do agree that the Tualatins are great CPUs, probably the best value on the planet after the Via C5P-core C3 1.2 GHz.
The Intel inside stickers are warnings! :)
Is no one here actually curious as to what the problem with the ICH6 chipset is?
I put my old systems to work on other tasks. Why throw away a perfectly good computer?
-Z
What this demonstrates is soundness of strategy given that they find themselves in this pickle (of their own making) to start with. They've avoided the even bigger mistake of staying silent, and the redress they're offering to mobo manufacturers is likely to minimize the damage to their relationships with these parties.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
That is why i trust AMD
Webmaster of Infoweb
Pot. Kettle. Black.
Should a company like intel be making mistakes like this? It's truely amazing how this company, which excels in committing monopolistic practices, has virtually unlimited finiacial resources, does not have the fastest x86 processor, does not have the best value x86 processor but is still the hugely dominant market leader.
All they have is the best name recognition- which makes no sense because they habitually relase cpu's/chipsets with major flaws, their P4's(which they said would reach 10ghz) has tapped out, they are struggling(along with the rest of the industry) to get their processor on 90mm process technology... Why do knowlegeable people still buy from them? I'd say because consumers/firms want to standardize on a platform, but Intel is more guilty than anyone in making their hardware platforms incompatible.
I just wanted to get that off my chest.
According to the Tom's Hardware link above.
install the DRM lockin technology, how silly of them to forget that :)
- Switch from "RDRAM is great" to "no more RDRAM for us"
- Switch from "GHz. matters" to "rating scheme"
- Switch from "no need for 64 bit x86" to "look at our cool new 64 bit Xeons"
- Newest/fastest processors dissipate ridiculous amounts of power
To me, it really looks like AMD has grabbed the "innovation hat" from Intel and is running with it. I hope fewer folks fall for Intel's marketing (the company's main strong point) and start using the better desktop/server technology - AMD64.The one area that Intel has technology edge is in mobile processors, AMD has some work to do there - although the mobile Athlon64s are great desktop replacement chips.
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
I applaud Intel for the callback.
I remember that they replaced my Pentium processor
when it had the F00F bug in it.
This was handled very well, even though I am in
Europe, a new processor was delivered via courier,
and I had to return the old one at the arrival of
the replacement, so I had no large downtime.
They did the right thing then, although at first
they claimed that only science users should get a
replacement, and private owners wouldnt notice
the bug. After a storm of complaints they did the
right thing, and now they do the right thing again.
Bram
Bram Stolk http://stolk.org/tlctc/
What I find funny is how AMD and IBM PowerPC devision are able to keep up and often surpass Intel using far smaller budgets and development teams. No matter your opinion on who is the "fastest" they are all pretty damn close and I for one would bet Intel outspends the the others 10 to 1. Pathetic.
hmm.... so they're reverting to the breadboard and tube based design?
Sitting Walrus Blog
from http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20040625_1105 02.html
According to spokesperson Christian Anderka, a piece of foil which should have been removed from the ICH6 was not removed completely which could result in leakage current in the Real Time Clock circuit and potentially stop a motherboard from booting.
It may look bad on the serfice, but it leads to more publicity in the end.
AMD's current 35W Athlon 64 2800+ (used in the Acer Ferarri 3200 notebook) is getting close, and from the leaked roadmap AMD will be down to 25W with the new 90nm chips that will be available later this year. AMD's main problem is, as usual, marketing weasles who swear up and down that customers don't want AMD chips, even when we beat them over the head and scream SELL ME A PROPER ATHLON 64 NOTEBOOK! Acer and eMachines have done a pretty good job, HP would have if they hadn't stupidly used a 3-year-old nVidia video chip in their AMD64 notebooks (marketing weasles at work again)...
The AMD chips have far better power management than Intel has too. My HP zv5000z has a DTR Athlon 64 3200+. It slows down by 400MHz and lowers the core voltage from 1.5V to 1.3V when unplugged, whichs cuts power consumption almost in half. Heat exhaust under full CPU load is barely warm. The DTR line is the least efficient, Mobile and Low-Voltage Athlon 64's would do better. Beats the heck out of Intel SpeedStep.
Ditto everything else you said.
the first one might not work.....
so we need you to buy 2-
then you'll almost ALWAYS have a working one.
suckers.
I went looking for power consumption info on Pentium M, but couldn't easily find any. I'm pretty sure it's even less than 25 W. However, I'd personally rather have an Athlon 64 notebook, since I hear you can get three hours of real-world use out of the E-machines 6805 and it should spank any of the Pentium Ms on performance. That is my current first choice, along with the 6809.
A Canadian company (the name escapes me at the moment) is supposedly making A64 notebooks with the ATI 9700M GPU, but their prices looked quite steep.
BTW, I couldn't agree with you more regarding the HP A64 notebooks - what a stupid decision on the graphics subsystems! I've not been impressed with HP for quite a while - how do you like your notebook other than the graphics? Is battery life good? How is the general engineering and fit/finish?
I sure hope E-machines doesn't axe it's A64 notebooks now that Gateway bought it - they seem to be some of the best around! I wish they'd go to 4-8 GB of RAM though... ;-)
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
Though you can still buy them today at 1.4GHz!
If you want really good battery life, consider an iBook - mine gets 4 hours of real-world use easy. I'm sure it's not as fast as an Athlon 64 though.
Not paying the Microsoft Tax is also a plus : )
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
heh...E-machines 6805 and 6809...thats funny! (Think old Motorola 8 bit CPUs and microcontrollers.)
Like, someone peed in your soup, man !! It doesn't matter who, just don't eat the soup, man !!
The F3200 uses the 128MB Radeon 9700, and I've found a few other notebooks using that same GPU... but I'd much prefer a GeForce 5700 for Linux compatibility. ATI hasn't released 64-bit Linux drivers yet, not even in beta. You can find a list of Athlon 64 notebooks here, but several of them aren't available in America (ASUS has a particularly nice one but the cowards won't stand up to Intel marketing and sell it here).
Outside of the antiquated graphics chip the zv5000z is a pretty nice notebook. I swapped out the slow 4200RPM HD for a 7200RPM one (easy and made a HUGE diff), wireless range is excellent, the 1680x1050 res widescreen is stunning (you can get 1920x1200 res now), the 12-cell battery gives about 4 hours of moderate use (web surfing and what not), I've been unable to get it to overheat (unlike my previous two notebooks), very well built notebook. Fedora Core 2 installs easily, though I had to do a little manual editing of xorg.conf for the 1680x1050 res. The problems are really dumb things that could be easily fixed if HP cared: there should be a 5400RPM and/or 7200RPM HD option, HP should either force Broadcom to release their wireless drivers or switch to Atheros, they rigged their BIOS to reject non-HP miniPCI cards (bastards! IBM does this too but no one else), K8 Errata #93 isn't patched in the BIOS, it's insanely picky about memory (likes Micron chips, otherwise you'd better buy PC3200 grade memory and hope for the best)... and the new BIOS that they're shipping that still isn't on the support webpage might fix a couple of those problems. The notebook is built by Compal and shipped directly from Shanghai via FedEx. Bluetooth is neat too, I haven't figured out how to configure it properly under Linux but it shows up as a standard USB Bluetooth device so I know I can eventually get it to work (got it to find my mouse, but Linux Bluetooth support hasn't been made user-friendly yet). Overall, with the exception of the evil Broadcom wireless and weak GPU it makes a pretty slick Linux notebook.
eMachines was my second choice. I wanted the upgrade options HP had and really wanted a nVidia graphics chip, and hoped the old GeForce 440 wouldn't be as bad as it turned out to be. (Think GeForce 440MX desktop graphics.) Sure, it beats integrated video, but... geeze.
It sounds like Gateway bought eMachines for their management. I'd expect Gateway to become like eMachines rather than the other way around. That bodes well for AMD. We should be seeing lots of new product launches from everyone as the back-to-school season ramps up and the new AMD 90nm chips start hitting the market.
4 hours is considered good????
Take a look at all the current stuff coming out of the japanese market... ~8 hours and under 3 pounds.
American notebooks remind me of american cars: bloated, oversized, inefficient.
- Toby
Well, it's also (at least) $1000 less than anything from dynamism.com - you have to make tradeoffs somewhere.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
...with all the details, and nothing about "recalls" and "recalling all the affected products". Numbers of chipsets affected, what the problem is, etc., are all here. And four links to the same story in the same post?! arg.
it depends. By staying silent, it probably wouldn't ever been reported anywhere much except geek sites like The Register. Most people would've never noticed the chipset bug, even if it was fairly severe.
I've got two Asus motherboards both with stuffed PCI implementations. Did Asus launch a recall of these boards? Did Asus even know? Have you heard of it for it to alter their high reputation in your mind? Maybe Intel's way is more ethical, but better for business, I don't know.
It's not less than any of the fujitsus or pannys native to here, just to name 2.
That powerbook is significantly heavier with way less battery life than its competition.... it's not like it offers more features which are accounting for the weight either. It's just plain clunky.
- Toby
Really? Could you provide a link, please?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz