Computer companies scramble to deal with Intel's Sandy Bridge chipset defect

While Intel will bear the brunt of the damage from the SATA-port defect the company has detected in its new Sandy Bridge chipsets, other companies building products around the parts are having to perform damage control as well.

Several PC manufacturers and component companies have already responded to the news of the defective parts. Here's a quick rundown of what they are each doing for consumers.

• According to Engadget, Dell has stopped selling the Alienware M17x R.3 gaming laptop for the time being.
• HP says its PC sales "will be impacted" by the defective chipset and it will postpone its launch event (schedule for next week) for its new business laptops, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
• Samsung is offering refunds on laptops sold with Sandy Bridge processors, though that only covers one machine released in the U.S. (not yet revealed).
• MSI has halted production of its P67 and H67 motherboards as well as its GT680 series of gaming laptops.
• Maingear is offering to replace the motherboards of its affected PCs and extend the motherboard warranty to three years. If you don't want to ship your system in (Maingear paying for shipping both ways), you can be sent a discrete hard drive controller instead so you won't need to use the defective SATA ports.
• Digital Storm is similarly offering to replace the impacted motherboards on its systems (paying for shipping both ways), or to ship a replacement motherboard with "an advanced warranty replacement" when they become available next month.
• CyberPower will also replace motherboards on its gaming PCs  (paying for shipping both ways) and extend the warranties on those systems to three years.
• Origin PC will offer a lifetime warranty on Sandy Bridge-based motherboards, and will swap out the defective part (paying for shipping both ways) or send a SATA II add-on card.
• Puget Systems will swap out the defective part or send a PCI-E SATA controller  card.
• Gigabyte has halted shipping all of its 6-series motherboards, which include both P67 and H67 Express chipsets.

Have you purchased a Sandy Bridge product yet? If so, what are you going to do (if anything) about the defective chipset? If not, has this made you reconsider a Sandy Bridge-based PC? Let us know in the Comments section.

Previous coverage:

• Intel flaw delays new MacBook Pros until April, maybe June
• Sandy Bridge chipset flaw to cost Intel $1 billion
• Intel hit with chipset design flaw in Sandy Bridge rollout