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Confusion Reigns Over Intel Recall

Toronto Star Fast Forward column for June 21, 2000

Copyright ©, Myles White, 2000

Intel Corp. has posted a recall on some of its PC motherboards with its relatively new i820 chipset. That's the bare bones of the story, but the details have led to consumer confusion.

First, some background: The logic chipset, so called because it's anywhere from two to five components on a computer's main system board (or motherboard), controls a number of vital functions taking place within the computer. Among others, it controls the motherboard's base speed (its front-side bus speed), which in turn determines which processors it can use. It affects memory timing and type, hard drive throughput rate, and other features and services (such as support for Universal Serial Bus, FireWire, and advanced power management).

In short, the chipset is an important component. Intel's latest chipset for Pentium III-based systems, dubbed the i820, has had a checkered career. When first due for release, it was held up when Intel discovered that it worked well enough on motherboards with two memory slots, but acted up when three or more were present. It took a while to sort that one out.

The i820 also supports a new, faster, and more expensive form of PC memory, RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory), but short supplies of the newer memory also accounted for another delay in its release.
However, the i820 also supports features that manufacturers and consumers were demanding, such as 133 MHz front-side bus required by the fastest Pentium III PC processors (including the new 1 GHz models), 66 MB/sec hard drive throughput, 4X AGP (accelerated graphics port providing faster graphics rendering). So, to satisfy the clamour, Intel devised a scheme that would allow a motherboard using the i820 chipset to use the older, slower, and less expensive synchronous DRAM (SDRAM).

The component added to the i820 design to allow it to use SDRAM is called the Memory Translator Hub (MTH) and its basic job is to translate the difference in electrical requirements between the board's chipset, "...which speaks RDRAM," said Intel spokesman, Michael Sullivan, into what SDRAM needs.

Flaky Component

The only problem is that the MTH is flaky. It can, while doing simultaneous switching, produce "noise" that may cause the computer to hang mysteriously or to spontaneously reboot, said Sullivan.
"The problem only affects some boards and not all of them," Sullivan added, "and to make it worse, the problem is intermittent. There is no way to tell for certain whether a specific board will have the problem or not and it's neither manufacturer nor batch specific. So, we decided to recall all of them."

Let the Confusion Begin...

If this problem affected only Intel branded motherboards, it would be relatively simple to fix. However, aside from its CC820 boards, Intel also supplied the i820 chipset and the MTH component to other motherboard manufacturers for incorporation into their own designs. And the other manufacturers' policies are all over the map.

Here's what it all boils down to:

• Intel estimates that fewer than 1 million motherboards with the MTH component on them shipped worldwide since November 1 of last year. The company recalled all of them that were in computer manufacturers' stockpiles – beginning last month – but is aware that many will already be in the hands of consumers.
• If you have either an Intel or other-branded motherboard with the i820 chipset and RDRAM, your motherboard doesn't have the MTH component and there is no problem to correct.
• There is no way to predict whether an i820-based motherboard with MTH and SDRAM will have or will develop the problem, nor is there a way to fix it simply with a software patch if it does.
• If you aren't sure whether you have RDRAM or SDRAM or the 820 chipset and/or the Memory Translator Hub component, you can download a software test to find out from Intel's Web site at www.intel.com/support/mth/ami.htm 
• Intel's i820 chipset-based motherboard solutions will no longer support SDRAM (the company isn't going to try to fix the MTH).

Abort, retry, fail...

• If you have an Intel brand CC820 motherboard, don't contact Intel directly to arrange for a replacement (<italic>unless the manufacturer of your computer has gone out of business<italic>). Instead, contact the retailer who sold you the computer – or the manufacturer of it – to work out the logistics for a replacement board (including who pays for shipping and other related costs). Intel is supposed to have replacement motherboards available as of June 19 and will replace your board – through the manufacturer – with one that doesn't have the MTH component. The company will also replace your SDRAM with the same amount of RDRAM (if you have 64 MB, you get 64 MB. If you have 128 MB, that's what you get).
• If you have another brand of motherboard that has the i820 and both SDRAM and MTH component, again you need to contact the computer or motherboard manufacturer. You may be offered one of three alternatives: a refund, another motherboard with (for example) a VIA chipset and the same amount of SDRAM, or a solution similar to Intel's (new board, replacement RDRAM memory).
• However, Intel is not giving motherboard manufacturers replacement RDRAM memory modules each time they turn in a MTH motherboard (so the reader who wrote to us claiming fraud because he wasn't being offered this solution was incorrect).

What do you do if the retailer or computer or motherboard manufacturer claims that their specific product, with i820 chipset, SDRAM, and MTH component doesn't qualify for a refund or replacement – or that it couldn't possibly have the problem for some highly inventive reason?

Sullivan just chuckled when I mentioned the possibilities. Don't believe a word of it. The recall applies to all motherboards with Intel's i820 chipset, the Memory Translator Hub, and SDRAM, regardless of whose name is on the motherboard or any cock and bull story someone may spin to put you off.

You can get more details at www.intel.com/support/mth/CC820_Customer.pdf (but you'll need Adobe's Acrobat reader to read the document).

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