Is Dell shipping Rev.04 B2 (recalled) Cougar Point chipsets??

Please check your new and somewhat new laptops. I am seeing reports of people receiving the outdated and recalled Sandy Bridge/Cougar Point Rev. 04 (the famous B2) chipset. In fact, I just received this B2 chipset in a new Latitude E6520 that was delivered to me this past Thursday (48 hours ago). Since the E6520 was NOT even released when all this Intel stuff went down 6+ months ago, I find it more than troubling if it pans out that Dell is now sending out a "questionable" version of the Intel chipset after all the hype has settled down in order to get rid of old undesirable inventory.

Please report your chipset version here. You can use various software to get this info or run the following command line within the Windows cmd box.

It will look like –
C:\Users\yourID>wmic idecontroller get deviceid
DeviceID
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C03&SUBSYS_04941028&REV_04\3&11583659&0&FA

REV_04 = B2 of the Cougar Point chipset = Potentially BAD

Should be B3

Scott-

 

IIRC, HP's own recall of Sandy Bridge required specific check on the actual chip or somewhere specific in Windows because fixed B3 steppings MAY still read B2 from device manager.

In any case, it really shouldn't matter as laptops only have 2 SATA devices so anything past ports 0,1 shouldn't be affected.

 

The last time I checked, the E6520 (yes, it's a laptop) had (4) accessable SATA ports:

Port Address
00: Primary HDD (SATA-II/III)
01: Modular Bay Device (SATA-II/III)
04: eSATA Port (SATA-II)
05: Dock eSATA Device (SATA-II)

My XPS-17 has (4) and so does my Sager NP8150; both laptops as well.

In reading the 900+ page Intel datasheets on the chipset in question, I can tell you that revision B2 is too questionable, even if Intel claims only a 5% failure rate over the next 3 years. Many companies claim what you mention in regards to laptops only having two SATA ports, but that defense is not so accurate these days.

Yes, since ports 00 and 01 are both SATA-II + III and use a different voltage control circuit than the affected SATA-II only ports (02 though 05), it doesn't change the fact that there are admitted issues with the SATA-II hardware (specifically the voltage control IC); thus the reason Intel invested over US$700 million in the recall and remanufacturing.

I have used 3 separate utilities to check my chipset and all report the same (B2). I will do a visual inspection of the chipset next and go from there, but my concerns are justified and so are others who may be in the same boat.

Scott-

 

The just up Dell and mention this. Their workstation team is all considerable people and you can try to get them to send you a newer motherboard, potentially one made more recently in the manufacturing process when the B3 was announced.

 

My 6420 says 04h on it.

However, it seems there was already a huge commotion on the Lenovo forums about this for W520 units where the answer was that a feature in the BIOS will make it look like B2 deliberately to prevent problems with redetecting hardware after imaging.

W520 with B2 stepping QM67 chips - HDD/DVD/mSATA a... - Page 3 - Lenovo Community

 

OK, as others have stated, I have confirmed a visual inspection is the only true way at this time to verify the revision of the specific chipset in question. Alhough all software and command lines return a B2 identifier, the chip physically appears to be revision B3 (see below). I am man enough to admit when I am in error and I am happier to see that I have the "good" chipset.

I hope this thread further helps others in verifying their hardware before calling the manufacturer.

Scott

 

Ya like I said, HP had a long SOP on Sandy Bridge chipsets as sometimes they can erroneously read as B2 even when they are B3 steppings.

 

i got one, e6420 - and am seeing the error - just narrowed it down to the chipset. and i'd called dell support about it describing the symptoms that are exactly as in the anandtech article that covers the fault. they failed to tell me about the issue and left me in a perpetual driver reinstall loop.

i bought this machine off of ebay back in september as a refurb - judging by the warranty dates, it's been originally sold end of july. which means that yes, they knowingly put faulty machines to the market.

i guess they were counting on us just using the first 2 sata ports that are not affected by the fault.

shame shame shame!

aida64:

southbridge:
Intel Platform Huron River
Revision / Stepping 04 / B2
Package Type 989 Pin FCBGA
Package Size 25 mm x 25 mm
Process Technology 65 nm
Core Voltage 1.05 V
TDP 3.9 W

 

Hi Scott,

My e6520 was replaced about a week ago and upgraded from i7-2720 to i7-2760. I have typed in and got:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\USER>wmic idecontroller get deviceid
No Instance(s) Available.


PS: there seems to be a new chipset driver (Intel_Chipset-Software-Insta_A04_R304291.exe (2MB))

 

Hmm my chipset says REV_04.

Also, new chipset drivers can't be downloaded for some reason.