Did I get bit by the Intel chipset bug?

[SCArsonist]

I'm currently mulling over the possible causes of my computer taking a turn for the worse, and I'd appreciate some opinions on the matter.

First, hardware:

Mobo: Asus P8P67 Deluxe
CPU: Intel i7 2600
RAM: 8GB (Patriot, don't recall the exact spec)
HD: WD Caviar Black 2GB
GPU: EVGA 470 GTX
OS: Win 7 Pro 64

The problem:

Yesterday, after booting and opening Firefox, everything on the desktop began to respond very, very slowly to any sort of input. Believing this to be yet another instance of Firefox acting up, I tried to close it normally, and then tried to force close it through the task manager. Even after managing to close Firefox through the task manager, the entire desktop environment was very slow. I shut down the computer, which took about five minutes to complete (about 4.5 minutes longer than it normally takes) and then fired it back up. Upon booting, the computer showed the abnormal shutdown screen, which was a bit odd, since shutdown had seemed normal apart from the length of time it took to complete. Booting as normal failed (hung on the black Win7 splash screen), and attempting to repair the installation failed as well (hung on a black screen).

Fearing for the worst for my partition, and knowing that my HD wasn't filled with much of anything, I decided to bite the bullet and reinstall the OS. Before doing anything else, and with the P67 chipset problem on my mind, I switched my HD from the SATA 3 port it had been connected to before the crash to one of the SATA 6 ports. I left both optical drives on the SATA 3 ports, since my mobo's manual claims that they won't work with the SATA 6 ports (I'm not sure about this one, really).

I booted several times with the Win 7 DVD, which consistently hung while loading the setup menu. I found that opening the DVD drive could restart the loading/installation process whenever it hung up, and I somehow managed to reinstall Windows. Everything appears stable with the installation at the moment.

So, I'm left to wonder if my crash was due to the chipset problem, as evidenced by repeated problems with both of my DVD drives when I reinstalled Windows, or if the crash was prompted by some other malady. My HD seems just fine, so I feel safe in ruling that out as a cause. Could the SATA 3 bug have affected my mobo after only a month of use?

Again, suggestions/opinions on the matter would be appreciated.

 

[Leaps-from-Shadows]

It's very likely that the bug bit you, yeah.

There are two Intel SATA3 6Gbps ports which you can use for the optical drives. Your hard drive(s) should be on the Marvell SATA3 6GBps ports.

 

[orangegator]

Yes, it could be due to the bug. But it also could be due a failing hard drive or bad ram. To rule this out you should run tests on both.

 

[jprahman]

Switch to the SATA III ports and see if that fixes things. I personally doubt that it's the chipset flaw that's to blame here, because it wasn't a problem where it would be evident early.

Basically the chipset problem was caused by a single transistor in the SATA II controller's PLL. The transistor's dielectric insulating layer is too thin causing excessive leakage current which slowly degrades the transistor. Overtime the transistor starts failing intermittently and eventually fails completely. A month or two of use shouldn't cause such degradation of the faulty transistor to that extent.

I have a feeling that the problem is related to the BIOS, the HDD itself, or perhaps a problem with the chipset other than one that prompted the recall. Obviously I'll stand corrected if switching to the SATA III port solves the problem, but that's my take.

 

[jprahman]

Run Prime95 and Memtest86 to rule out CPU/RAM issues as the cause.