MSI Responds To Sandy Bridge Chipset Issue, Offers Recall And Temp Fix

Update: MSI is now taking customer registrations for possible replacement of their boards. For more information visit the MSI Support Page.

Following the reports of a chipset flaw that affects Intel's new 6-series 'Sandy Bridge' motherboards Intel has said it will not officially recall any boards and they are leaving the issue of recalls up to each manufacturer, distributor and retailers.

Details from most manufactures on potential recalls is still fairly sparse however MSI has stepped forward and provided their costumers the the details of their recall efforts as well as a temporary fix.

Products in the market
As of the 31st of January MSI informed all our distributors, retails and reseller to stop directly the sales of Intel 6 series based products of MSI and to hold any products pending shipments to customers. No need to worry in the case that you purchased an Intel 6 series based product form MSI after the 31st of January because we will take care for you.

We started the procedure to collect all the current stock in the market. Retailers and reseller can return their Intel 6 series MSI products they have in stock to their point of purchase (distributor) which can return the goods to the MSI distribution centers. If retailers, resellers or MSI distributors have any questions about the procedure they can contact their local MSI sales representative.

Affected models
At this moment there are only a limit models in the market based on the Intel 6 series chipset. You can identify them based on the model name in the list below.

MSI Mainboards

Intel© P67	Intel© H67
P67A-GD65	H67MA-ED55
P67A-GD55	H67MA-E45
P67A-GD53	H67MS-E43
P67A-C45	H67MS-E33
P67A-C43
P67S-C43

MSI Notebooks

Intel© PM67

GT680R

How to get serviced
We want  you to have a MSI product which you can trust and rely on. This is why we have 2 choices for your purchased Intel 6 series based MSI products;

1.    Product swap
If you are confident and willing to wait we can swap your current Intel 6 series based product in a brand new MSI product which is based on the new B3 stepping of the Intel 6 series which solves the current SATA2 port issues. If you have an MSI 6 series mainboard you can – for the short term - connect your storage devices to the safe white SATA3 ports on your mainboard, for more detailed instructions please click here.

This MSI product you get swapped will have similar or better specs. These new MSI products will become available in April and this way you will miss your product only for a very short period of time. You can identify the new products by a clear sticker on the color box. We will release details about this procedure before the end of February.

2.    Product return
If you are not confident about your current MSI based 6 series product MSI offers you the possibility to return the product to your point of purchase which will credit you. Please make sure to back-up your personal data.

Hotline information
If you have any questions about the Intel 6 series chipset issue or if you are not sure which alternative SATA ports to use on your mainboard, or you want to know how to return your product you can always contact the MSI Hotlines in your region. Our people are ready to support you with your questions because your satisfaction is very important for us.

For customers that bought their products via Newegg, the company is reportedly letting customers make returns with no questions asked. They are also waiving the standard 15% restocking fee on all products associated with the order. So that means if you want you can return the motherboard, cpu and anything else and buy a new Core i5/i7 or AMD setup.