This may no longer be a new issue but I just tripped over it while trying to sort out a problem on a laptop.
Intel statement: http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/6/sb/CS-032521.htm
Acer FAQ: https://customercare.acer-euro.com/customercare/IntelSandyBridgeFAQ.aspx?Caller=Problem
This was a issue with the first chipsets that shipped for Sandy Bridge, current shipping ones are a revised version not plagued by this. Also since most laptops only use 2 SATA ports (one for HDD/SSD and one for Optical) as long as the manufacturer is using port 0-1 then you are ok. You can check which ports are in use in device manager
Yes very old news as the new chipsets B3 stepping are already shipping in new systems and that started to happen from around March this year I believe.
There have also been motherboard replacements going on also.
So if you recently bought a MB with the chipset supporting sandy bridge and they weren’t making a big deal out of it being either B3 stepping, revision 3 or something like that (as customers stopped buying) then you should confirm it isn’t the old chipset.
I already forgot about this 'till you mention it now. There’s one my ‘early adopter’ friend got this faulty chipset in his notebook, though in his case the problem sorted out easily by returning the notebook to the store.
Easy way to avoid this problem. Go AMD!
Well, it’s cheaper anyway. I just like 'em better than Intel and use them as often as I can.
The problem here is the OP and I are speaking about laptop. There are only few laptop pack with AMD processor. And if you want a decent one with price range US$1500-up, it’s normally packed with Intel inside it.
That’s because everyone sees Intel and automatically thinks it’s better. The problem is society, and manufacturers sell what people want to buy.
The only problem is that people don’t know what to buy and they go with whatever they hear or see more often.
Well, if you compare the high end series of processors between Intel and AMD, Intel specification are better (at least technically) than AMD, though the performance difference isn’t really noticeable between machine with same specs.
Personally, I always prefer ATI (too bad that AMD about to ditch this name) rather than NVIDIA.
I agree that people and manufacturers tends to go where crowds go. It’s AMD that first releasing AMD Fusion then Intel tag along with their Sandy Bridge. Though Intel got hiccups with their Sandy Bridge line, still if you go to store to buy a decent laptop you’ll mostly got it packed with Intel inside it (and mostly pack with NVIDIA graphics too :()
Couldn’t agree more Scy, My Last three systems have been AMD including the Quad core I’m using now.
AMD rocks
I’ll have to agree with you on the high-end systems being Intel. We can only hope that AMD can close the gap a bit with the upcoming Bulldozer series, but I can only hope.