14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that, like so many others of Intel's manufacturing partners, ASRock has finally decided what it will do about all the faulty motherboards powered by the 6-Series Cougar point chipset.
By now, most consumers will already be up to speed with all the trouble surrounding the Intel 6-Series chipset.
Back at the end of January, the Santa Clara, California-based company discovered that its chipset had a design flaw that could affect the functionality of any mainboard or laptop based on it.
Said issue led to the degradation of the SATA 3.0 Gbps ports, something that, obviously, is no minor problem.
Following the announcement, sales of practically all motherboards and laptops affected (meaning all the ones built by then) were halted.
Immediately all companies began to think about refunding and replacing sold items, but they still have their hands tied, more or less, at least until shipments of fixed models start.
It seems that ASRock has now revealed what its own plans are in regards to this entire mess.
As revealed by its news release, one part of its plan involves extending, free of charge, the warranty of affected platforms by one year.
This includes the Fatal1ty P67 Professional, P67 Extreme4, P67 Extreme6, P67 Pro3, H67DE3, H67M-GE/HT, P67 Transformer, P67 Pro, H67M/SI, H67M-GE and H67M.
Fortunately, Intel has already begun shipments of its revised, B3-stepping Cougar Point, so ASRock should soon be able to offer replacements for returned purchases.
“For customers who purchased ASRock product with the affected chipset, ASRock will provide exchange service after new chipsets are received in late February,” says the announcement.
Intel expects to return to full capacity in April, meaning that it should take just as, or slightly longer, for ASRock, as well as its rivals, to get back to their normal selves. Of course, it remains to be seen is users don't end up wary of any new buys after a mishap like this.