Please Help....Unable To Verify If My System Has Cougar Point Issue. [ Edited ]

[Krishnakant]

Hi,

I purchased HP Pavilion dv6-6016tx model on 23rd april from R.S.Computer World, hyderabad, India.

Serial No: [Personal Information Removed]

Product Number: LQ457PA#ACJ

I have checked the url:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02712015&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=509...

according to it this laptop may have the bug.

i also checked with the method in the given url:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Find-Out-if-Your-Sandy-Bridge-Motherboard-Is-Affected-by-Intel...

according to this method the revision comes 04 and hence my system is affected.

plz clarify my doubt, if defective i would like a replacement. i have invested a lot in here and dont want a defective item.

if u need any more details i will be willing to help, thanks in advance. awaiting ur reply asap.

there is another problem. its only 1 week and since day 1 my hard disk makes noise upon usage. whenever the hard disk led glows there is a sound coming from hdd. this ofcourse is a indication that the hard disk is damaged. will hp replace the hdd?

i got 500gb 5400rpm hitachi hdd in this machine, others vendors are providing 7200rpm hdd.y is that hp still shipping old hdd?

the performance index of the system has come to 5.9 and this corresponds to the hdd. all the other varialbles are 6 and 7 only hdd performance index is below 6.

[Krishnakant]

latest updates are as follows:

the chipset details are as follows:

device manager->system devices:

Chipset= Intel(R)6 Series/C200 Series Chipset FamilyPCI Express Root Port 2 -1C12

i also checked with CPU-Z utility and it shows the revision number of mainboard as B2, which corresponds to the defective chipset.

i had a chat session with hp customer support, and he said that they will replace the system, but when i called hp support he told to go to call hp service center in hyderabad. when i called hp service center they told to me to come to hp service center which is 25 km from my place. i was said that this is an onsite warranty and in case of any troble hp personal will visit my place.

on top of it many hp personels dont know much about this cougar point bug.

i cant get a day leave from my office and these hp people want me to walk to their doors.

[Krishnakant]

 Latest updates: hp cust care has recognized the issue and has registered an doa case.

case id : 4629201165

the hp partner engineer came yesterday and did all sort of things for 4 hours. he was very ill informed about the cougar point flaw.

he basically performed memory and hard disk tests from the system bios and infered that the system was not defected. he told he will ask his manager and update me.

eventually i have to tell him how to find that the chipset is flawed.

secondly, the point of purchase from where i got the system, totally denied any kind of help and asked me to contact hp and not him as he is now not responsible for any defect. i wonder y dont hp follow dell's kind of ideology of only selling the systems online thru dell.

these hp partners in india are bringing shame to HP. its high time HP reviews its policies abt its partners in india.

[Krishnakant]

why is there is no reply from any of u mods,sumos, admin here in this thread? u are employed by hp to address the issues of the hp customers. plz  reply asap.

[MrMatthew]

Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forum. This is a peer to peer community for customers to connect and share solutions on their HP consumer products. If you have direct feedback for HP about their products or services, please use the link below.

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/wwcontact_us.html

If you have other questions and concerns, please feel free to send me a private message.

[Krishnakant]

it is very heart breaking that most of the people that i talked to in hp are unaware of the issue and all of them are giving contradictory statements. all are delegating the issue to each other.

pathetic support.

[Krishnakant]

any updates guys?????

here is update from my side:

Below is a copy of the mail i sent to hp yesterday and till now i havnt got a reply
Here are the details:
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Product Name: HP Pavilion DV6 Notebook PC.
Serial Number: edited
Product Number: LQ457PA#ACJ
Date Of Purchase: 23-April-2011
Point Of Purchase: RS Computer World, Malekpet, Hyderabad.

I have approached numerous channels of HP and most of them were unaware of the chipset issue and passed on contradictory statements. This ensures that HP personnel are ill informed about the issue.

1. HP Page Link For This Issue:
[url=http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02712015&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=509...® Chipset Design Issue May Affect Certain HP Desktop and Notebook PCs HP Pavilion dv6t-6000 CTO Select Edition Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)[/url]

Under this if the chipset is “Intel® 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family” then my system may be affected, Ofcource this proves that HP is unsure and has not kept track of defective chipsets.
Also we cant rely only on the serial number verification as we will have to use a combination of both the clauses.

2. I even had a chat session with intel customer support and he has verified that the system is faulty. (Please check Proof11.jpg  and Proof8.jpg below)

3. Softpedia Page Link For This Issue:
[url=http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Find-Out-if-Your-Sandy-Bridge-Motherboard-Is-Affected-by-Intel... to Find Out If Your Sandy Bridge Motherboard Is Affected by Intel's SATA Bug - Softpedia[/url]

Even in this method the revision id has come out to be 4 and it is defective. (Check Proof7.jpg in Proof.zip or below)

4. I have used CPU-Z v1.57.1 and it reports B2 stepping which corresponds to the defective chipset. (Please see Proof6.jpg in Proof.zip or below)

5. Check Link1 and Link2. Link1 corresponds to HP site and Link2 that of intel website.
Link1: [url=http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02712015&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=509...® Chipset Design Issue May Affect Certain HP Desktop and Notebook PCs HP Pavilion dv6t-6000 CTO Select Edition Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)[/url]
Link2: [url=http://www.intel.com/consumer/products/processors/chipset.htm]Solution for the Intel Series 6 Chipset Design Error[/url]

Under both it is mentioned that “Intel® 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family” is or maybe defective. (Please see Proof5.jpg below, for a snapshot of my system.)

6. Used hwinfo hardware utility to identify the revision. It comes to B2 which corresponds to defective chipset. (Please see Proof9.jpg below.)

It is mentioned in hp and intel website that 3rd party softwares may not report the stepping revision correctly. Please give me an application which can report it correcty. Prove that iam using an updated chipset with B3 revision, as now i dont trust Hp personnels due to lack of transparency. You saying that the serial number proves that it is unaffected in unjustified as the customer support personnel and even the admin of hp support forums have indicated that we have to use the combination of serial number and device manager technique and we cant rely only on one clause.

Now let me get to the point. This laptop doesnt uses port 2-5. HDD and DVD drive will be configured in SATA2 - Port0 & 1 configuration. So HDD test or any kind of test will not report the issue as no device is connected to the affected port.
Intel has resumed shipment of defective chipsets for systems not affected by the design issue. Below is the link:

Link: [url=http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Sandy-Bridge-Cougar-Point-SATA,12156.html]Intel Resumes Shipments of Faulty Cougar Point[/url]

Now in future i may choose to use SATA2 Port 2-5 and they are defective. How can anyone say that iam not affected?
Let me clear u with a simple example: You went to buy a television set. The volume and channel change buttons on the tv set are faulty ( These buttons are rarely used by the users, as most of us uses the buttons on remote control). So will you buy the tv set?
It doesnt matter if iam affected or not. The bottom line is that my system has a dead transistor in its chipset and i had paid the same amount of money as of the non faulty system, a whopping 47k.

Now its been long since i have registered the case, and iam not getting any positive replies from HP. During my first few calls to hp customer care, i was informed 3 times that you dont have to worry, your system will be replaced. Ofcourse they also read the HP site link about the issue. They recognized the issue. why there is difference in comprehension of that webpage between you and HP customer care?

I have also approached admins and mods of HP forum but didnt get a satisfactory reply. Everyone seems to be confused.

Apart from this there are some other issues with the system as follows:
a) Hard disk makes sound while in heavy usage. This is an indication of a damaged HDD. ( The Read head in the HDD is touching the disk surface)
b) My system has crashed 2 times, without any changed done my me. I restored it by system restore in safe mode.
c) Yesterday the system hung while i was watching HD movie. I have to cold start the system again.
d) There are over heating issues with the system. Specially the left side of the palm rest is so hot that i cant lay my palm on it.
e) The system fan runs continuously , even though i have disabled the option "AlwaysOn on power" in the system bios"
f) sometimes the keypress in the keyboard is missed. this has happened only 4 times in 3 weeks period of use.
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guys plz help me.

the screen shots are as below:

Proof5.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/3442jgg.jpg

Proof6.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/33y547k.jpg

Proof7.jpg
http://i54.tinypic.com/n49lea.jpg

Proof8.jpg
http://i51.tinypic.com/x4j72v.jpg

Proof9.jpg
http://i55.tinypic.com/24w53xj.jpg

Proof11.jpg
http://i52.tinypic.com/2s83hig.jpg

[Xanode]

so what ended up happening with this, i too just found out that my motherboard in my laptop is using the affected chipset, man by the sound of it it looks like im in for a hard time. Shame, shame on HP.

[Krishnakant]

Indian hp guys were unable to resolve the issue. i contacted admin of the hp support forum and then the local hp guys hurried up to serve me to the best possible way. my laptop was replaced