Taiwanese notebook and PC component maker ASUS has announced that it has begun shipping replacement B3-stepping motherboards and notebooks.
The news comes as the company announces the reintroduction of Intel’s troubled platform is ahead of schedule. Chip giant Intel announced on January 31 that a design flaw affecting hard drive connections had been found and fixed but also said that replacement parts would not be available until April.
ASUS has also said that any customer who owns an ASUS product affected by the Intel design flaw will be able to have it replaced free of charge between March 1 and June 30, 2011.
| Affected motherboard models: | ||||
| IntelR P67 | IntelR H67 | IntelR Q67 | IntelR C206 | |
| Motherboard | P8P67 | P8H67 | P8Q67-M DO | |
| P8P67 DELUXE | P8H67-M | |||
| P8P67 EVO | P8H67-M EVO | |||
| P8P67 LE | P8H67-M PRO | |||
| P8P67 PRO | P8H67-V | |||
| P8P67-M | P8H67-I DELUXE | |||
| P8P67-M PRO | P8H67-M LE | |||
| SABERTOOTH P67 | P8H67-M LX | |||
| MAXIMUS IV EXTREME | ||||
| Workstation | P8P67 WS Revolution | P8B WS | ||
| Motherboard | ||||
Those with affected ASUS products can get more details at the ASUS website.
The Intel flaw affects its 6-series chipset’s four SATA2 ports that can show degraded performance over time. The two SATA3 ports remain unaffected. The new B3-stepping replacement boards and notebooks fix this flaw.