Intel confirmed that it has uncovered a design problem involving processor packages using the company's 400MHz Celeron and 400MHz Pentium II mobile chips that effectively made the chips unusable.
The problem was brought to Intel's attention in late February after buyers of Toshiba America Information Systems notebooks began complaining to the PC maker about CPU failures.
The trouble was initially reported to Toshiba by owners of its Satellite 4100-series and Tecra 8000-series laptops featuring the 400MHz chips.
In the last two weeks, Toshiba and Intel engineers narrowed the problem down to a circuit board known as Mobile Module One on which the CPUs were affixed, according to Manny Vara, a spokesman for Intel, in Santa Clara, Calif. Intel has several types of mobile modules, Vara said.
Overvoltage tripping
"Basically, there's something called overvoltage tripping [on the circuit board], and there's a component in there that would trip the overvoltage protection so that it would disable the CPU," Vara said.
Vara stressed that the problem was related to a component on the chips' daughtercards and not to the processors themselves.
Intel and Toshiba officials said the problem was limited to a small percentage of all 400MHz mobile processors produced from late December through February.
Vara said the corrected chips began shipping this month. "We found a workaround, we implemented the workaround, and we've been shipping the products already with the workaround implemented," he said.
While Intel believes Toshiba received the majority of the flawed packages, Vara said other OEMs may have received some in small quantities. However, he stopped short of disclosing the names of the other PC makers.
Toshiba swings into action
Mark Tanguay, Toshiba's director of mobile product marketing, said the company has aggressively pursued remedying the problem for its customers.
"We are proactively contacting our customer base and are working with them to resolve any issues that are uncovered," he said.
"We're going back right now, working to see not only what the total volume was, but where the products ended up," Tanguay added. "Since these products usually end up with corporate customers, they are somewhat concentrated into select accounts, and we're talking to those accounts right now to see if we can isolate the problems."
According to Toshiba, Satellite notebooks are generally purchased by small and midsize businesses, while Tecras are most often bought by large-scale corporate accounts.
"We're working very closely with Intel, we've already identified the fix for this, we've already implemented repair work as well in our factory so that new products coming out will not face this issue," Tanguay said.
"Our remedy is just like with every product. We'll go ahead and repair or replace any component under warranty," he said.
Intel's Vara also vowed that the chip maker would continue to offer Toshiba assistance to address this issue.
