Looks like Intel “le falta un tornillo.” You’re surely aware of the problem with its Series 6 (“Cougar Point”) support chipset, which has caused the company to stop production of its Sandy Bridge processors. It’s a nightmare, and not only for Intel. Take Asus: a fine company that produces a number motherboards and laptops that are afflicted with the rotten chipset. What to do?
Asus has taken it upon itself to offer an extended warranty to all of its doodads. If you bought a Sandy Bridge motherboard but don’t want it anymore, no worries: you can swap it for another one, or merely return it and get your money back.
Asus also notes that the glitch doesn’t affect SATA ports 0 and 1. If all you need is access to those two ports and don’t want to go through the rigamarole of contacting customer service, worry not: you should be fine.
Dell has made similar assurances, noting that it’s “committed” to working with its customers to make everything right.
The glitch, as you might suspect, will delay the release of further Sandy Bridge-based systems for several weeks—one analyst says not to be surprised if full-scale production doesn’t resume until April.
The glitch only affects Sandy Bridge, so system builders looking to use an i5 or i7 processor have nothing to worry about.
UPDATE HP has now offered similar assurances, saying that it will accept returns of Sandy Bridge’d PCs, or will its customers to choose a “comparable” product.