14 DAY TRIAL // After Intel announced that it has stopped shipments of 6-series motherboard chipsets, its board partners were left with the difficult task of deciding what to do with the faulty products that were already into the market, after Asus, Gigabyte also detailing its replacement program.
For starters, Gigabyte has stopped shipping out such products and has recalled any unsold 6-series B2 motherboards from their distributors and dealers.
Next, all Gigabyte 6-series boards that are based on the B2 revision of the Cougar Point chipset will be accepted back for replacement with a B3 motherboard, regardless of the condition.
As AnandTech points out, this means that non-working boards could also be returned as long as they use the B2 chipset.
According to Gigabyte, replacement motherboards based on the B3 revision of the Cougar Point chipset are scheduled to arrive in April, all the boards that are covered by this program to be returned to the location they were purchased for being swapped.
In addition, customers can also opt for a refund, if they so desire, Gigabyte actually recommending its users to go this route as it offers added flexibility.
Finally, all feature Sandy Bridge boards manufactured by Gigabyte will be based on the B3 revision of Intel's chipset.
As we previously reported, the cause of the bug is in one of the transistors in the 3Gbps PLL clocking tree, which was provided with a too high voltage when the PCH was designed, resulting in a higher than expected leakage current that can increase over time, leading to the failure of the 3Gbps ports.
The remaining two 6Gbps SATA ports, as well as the ports powered by third-party controllers, aren't affected by this issue, so, until April comes, Sandy Bridge users should install their storage drives on these ports.
A SATA add-in card is also an option if more such ports are required.