Acer joins faulty Sandy bridge chipset recall

Acer has become the latest manufacturer to stop shipping products with faulty Intel Sandy Bridge chipsets, and has issued a recall of machines that might be affected.

In a statement to V3.co.uk, Acer said it is taking all the necessary steps to minimise any inconvenience customers might experience following Intel's announcement of the Sandy Bridge design flaw.

Acer is in the process of setting up a web site where customers will be able to find out whether their product could be affected.

"In case a machine is impacted, Acer will offer the option to service the defective unit," the company said.

"While the timing of the service depends on the supply of the fixed chipset from Intel, Acer is committed to completing the whole activity in the shortest possible time."

Alternatively, customers will be able to swap a defective PC with another Acer product of comparable performance free of charge.

Meanwhile, Lenovo has released a list of affected models, which include the Y460P, Y560P, Z570, G470, G570, V370, V470, V570, B470 and B570 Ideapad laptops, and the IdeaCentre K330, K330A, B520 desktops.

"Lenovo wants to reassure its customers that it is safe to use their Idea-branded PCs with Intel 6 series chipsets, and that customer data is not threatened by this issue," the firm said in a statement.

"The probability of failure in these Intel system boards is estimated to be no greater than five per cent over three years, which is well within industry averages for system board failure rates."

Lenovo will also offer a service programme that will provide a system board replacement free of charge.

Any customers not satisfied with the system board replacement will be entitled to other remedies, including a full refund at point of sale.

Intel issued a recall on all P67 and H67 motherboards built on found in the Sandy Bridge micro-architecture on 31 January, and said that the hardware problem needs a silicon fix.

The issue relates to connectivity, meaning that, over time, machines may not be able to identify the hard disk or DVD. However, Intel confirmed that the defect will not cause any damage to the data stored on the drives.

Intel has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip. V3.co.uk contacted the firm to confirm a shipping date, but Intel had not responded at the time of writing.

HP, Dell and Samsung announced a recall earlier this week, and will offer replacement parts when they become available.