W520 with B2 stepping QM67 chips - HDD/DVD/mSATA affected? [ Edited ]

[zaXXon]

Hi,

I just received my brand spanking new W520 Thinkpad and the very first thing that I did was to install an Intel "soda creek" 80GB mSATA SSD in it.  Now I have found out that some W520 motherboards have B2 stepping QM67 chipsets and some have B3 (without the Sandy Bridge SATA bug) chipsets.  Since I am under the impression that both the chipset that I own is faulty and that the fault directly inpacts my SATA devices, I called Atlanta, Georgia and spoke with an IBM/Lenovo representative in the warranty department.  They asked me to contact a sales person since I have had the machine less than 21 days.  They also said that they were unaware of any B2 stepping W520 boards, but if you run CPU-Z or you open a cmd window and type in "wmic idecontroller get deviceid" you can see if your W520 board is B2 stepping or B3 stepping.  REV_04 as a result of either of these methods would indicate a B2 (buggy hardware) stepping whereas a revision 5 is a newer stepping without the bugs.

So, will this B2 stepping motherboard have a negative effect on my mSATA card that I am using for my operating system?  How about my spinning HDD?  What about the DVD burner?   Why is Lenovo selling B2 stepping QM67 boards in new machines at this late date?  How come the W520 is not listed among the machines that have this issue as per this page on the Lenovo web site:

Chipset Series 6 Announcement

From what I have read, the QM67 chipset exhibits the B2 stepping problem.  I'd like some clarity from Lenovo about this, since the warranty department was of no help.

Thanks!

[Volker1]

I also have the affected B2 stepping chipset (=rev 04). You can check on Linux with 

[user@localhost ~] lspci | grep SATA

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)

The unaffected SATA ports 0 and 1 are the main harddisk bay and the ultrabay.

The remaining SATA ports suffer from the Intel chipset bug and may show decreased performance and / or loss of function during the expected lifetime. This would be the external eSATA port and the mSATA internal connector (and only these two).

[zaXXon]

Since I'm already using the mSATA and the eSATA is something that I do plan on using, it sounds like I'm hosed.

I want to see what Lenovo has to say about this.

[zaXXon]

Quick update before I go to bed...

I called technical support again and spoke to a nice fellow that was aware of the B2 stepping issue with some Intel chipsets but he told me unless the board had died in my machine or the machine was on the list of computers that Lenovo was offering replacement motherboards for, I was pretty much stuck with the computer as is.  So I called sales and got an RMA.  The W520 is going back.  I'll pack it up and drop it off at UPS on Saturday.

Since I only had a few more days available in which I could return the machine and I could not get a solid answer about the B2 stepping on this motherboard, I figured dumping the hardware was the best way to avoid paying good money for something that would always strike me as faulty.  I did that already with my T61p and it's "flaky crust" Nvidia card and I don't feel like doing it again.

[Mark_Lenovo Former Administrator]

ZaXXon,

I appreciate your concern, and your right to go this route.   However, let's not conclude that all B2 are affected.  

As I understand it, there are sublevels that are not read at a system level / reported to the OS.

Let's get further details from engineering and hopefully we can clear this up for the benefit of others.

Thanks

Mark

[davidhbrown]

Per Intel's Product Change Notification, http://hw-lab.com/uploads/hardware/cpu/sb/pcn110456-00.pdf, the revised B3 was supposed to be shipping back in February. What the heck is Lenovo doing still sending out B2 QM67s on their high-end notebooks in April? This is very frustrating and disappointing.

I boot from a mSATA on one of the 3GB/s SATA ports, so I'm pretty sure I'll be affected if anyone is...

I'd probably send it back, too, if my T61p hadn't finally died of overheating.

[cerulean47]

This is extremely disappointing.  My W520 is showing REV_04 as well.  It might need to go back.

[ThorsHammer]

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Mark_Lenovo wrote:

ZaXXon,

I appreciate your concern, and your right to go this route.   However, let's not conclude that all B2 are affected.  As I understand it, there are sublevels that are not read at a system level / reported to the OS. Let's get further details from engineering and hopefully we can clear this up for the benefit of others.

Thanks

Mark

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How do you propose to resolve this?  Do you have concrete instructions? 

[Devhack]

In running the "deviceid" cmd string, the 5th line is as follows:

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1C03&SUBSYS_21CF17AA_&REV_04\3&B1BFB68&0&FA

I assume this means I have REV_04 and faulty chipset, unless and until Lenovo advises otherwise, correct?

I also assum I have 21 days from invoice to return my W520, which is 7 days from today.

Mark/Lenovo, please expedite an answer on this issue, as I don't want the system with a faulty chipset.

Thanks.

[Q-Ball]

I'd also like to know what the official policy on this is.

Do those who have B2-stepping chipsets that have the mSATA and eSATA ports slow down over time and die get a replacement no matter how out-of-warranty the machine is?

Or does support have to be invoked now, to ensure no future problems?