[georgetok]

Hi,

I ended up with NEW Dell’s XPS 8300 system with the flawed Intel’s Cougar Point chipset.

Intel says only 5% of the motherboards would be affected.

My question is, how do I know if I am in that 5% or not ?

Are there any tests or software that would identify the issue ?

What should I be looking for ?

I am in stock market business & any errors in calculations & plotting of chart’s data could cost me dearly.

So I am not using this system for business at this moment but I do need the system.

I tried hard but Dell’s technicians have no clue.

I have an option to return the system but then I will have to wait till end of April or May to get a new one & would rather keep it if there is a workaround.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks

Edited by georgetok, 16 February 2011 - 06:27 AM.

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Understand it is a SATA3 problem. See http://www.pcmag.com...,2379241,00.asp

[Digerati]

Understand it is a SATA3 problem. See http://www.pcmag.com...,2379241,00.asp

[iammykyl]

I have an option to return the system but then I will have to wait till end of April or May to get a new one & would rather keep it if there is a workaround.

If you are able to return the unit in six months time, you might only have to wait a couple of weeks for the replacement.

You would have the problem of backup and restore of any Date you needed.

[Troy]

Understand it is a SATA3 problem. See http://www.pcmag.com...,2379241,00.asp

NO, THIS IS INCORRECT.

The problem is related to the SATA2 ports which run at the slower 3Gbps. If you have hard drives connected to the SATA2 ports and do a lot of read/write operations then you may be at risk. Mind you from what I can understand, the hard drives themselves will be perfectly fine, it is just the port that eventually fails. Plugging the drive into a different port found that the data was still intact. I remember reading this but cannot find a reference right now.

Either way you should choose to replace it. If you have the option to delay until replacements are in stock ready to ship, you could choose that option just making sure (of course) you have daily backups.

I have a client with a brand new custom-built server I built and setup for him, and 3 days after delivering onsite and configuring for him I get all these news releases about problems - sheesh! But as I am running a RAID 1 array off the 2x SATA3 ports I don't anticipate any dramas. I have told him what has happened and when replacements are ready I will swap it out.

Cheers

[Digerati]

I should have been more clear. It is an Intel 6-series chipset problem dealing with SATA3 ports. SATA6 ports are fine.

[Troy]

There is no such thing as SATA6. There is SATA2 which runs at 3Gbps and there is SATA3 which runs at 6Gbps.

[Digerati]

It's kind of like saying there is no such thing as EIDE, no? Since SATA, suddenly its PATA.

It's actually SATA 1.0, SATA 2.0 and SATA 3.0 but you will often see them as SATA 1.5 Gb/s, SATA 3 Gb/s, and SATA 6 Gb/s. But that gets confusing, ESPECIALLY when 2.0 = 3. So while there may not really be such a thing as SATA1, SATA3, SATA6, you will often see it that way (example) - I think most folks understand SATA6 stands for 6 Gb/s. But I will try to remember the Gb/s or Gbit/sec from now on.

[Troy]

It is only confusing when you refer to SATA3 and actually mean SATA2 which runs at 3Gb/s. Because there is such a thing as SATA3 6Gb/s and it is not the same as SATA2.

Especially when we are talking about an identified problem such as this.