April 18, 2005                                                                                                                                                 

ALERT: INTEL ICH5

Let’s get one thing clear before I go on.  This problem is exclusively the responsibility of Intel.  The reason you are hearing about it from me is because of the bureaucracy within Intel.  They have chosen to downplay this problem if not attempt to completely ignore it.  It has taken me about two weeks of research to find out the true source of this problem.  I am, to say the least, furious with Intel and their lack of responsibility for their actions.  This problem has cost us a great deal of time and money and it will affect you too.

We didn’t start seeing this problem until about the last 6 months.  It has been getting progressively worse however.  If you haven’t seen the problem yet, you will.  Trust me.  As you may or may not know, the Intel ICH5 south bridge chip has been around for quite some time.  The problem occurs when plugging a USB 2.0 device into the front USB port.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it shorts out the ICH5 chip and the front USB will no longer work.  In some instances it can even render the board completely useless.

As I said, ICH5 has been around longer than USB 2.0.  However, Intel did nothing to redesign the chip when USB 2.0 came out.  That may not have been a big issue but they didn’t inform the motherboard manufacturers of any necessary changes regarding USB 2.0 either.  That was the biggest mistake.    You see, USB 2.0 has higher voltage requirements than USB 1.1 did.  When you plug in a USB 2.0 device into the front USB sometimes the chip would short out and you could actually see the melted spot on the chip.  We have even seen them burn completely through the board!  That is rare, however.  Is it a fire hazard?  That remains to be seen.

Since this problem originally cropped up, Intel has quietly informed motherboard manufacturers about the problem and told them how to fix it.  You may see this engineering fix, or “enhancement” as it’s being called, as an additional platform underneath the front USB headers on the motherboard.  Intel has also quietly informed these manufacturers that they will replace the defective chips and compensate the manufacturer.  The rest of us have to pay for their negligence.

The ICH5 was paired with 845, 865, and 875 north bridge chips.  We have only seen the problem on the 865 boards and one 845 board.  The problem started slowly about 6 months ago when USB 2.0 really took off.  As it has grown in popularity, we have seen a drastic increase in the problem.  Last week we had 10 boards in two days.

Keep in mind that the problem appears to be exclusive to the front USB but the rear is also a possibility.  We have not seen any problems with the rear USB.  If your customer does not have front USB (most older cases don’t have it) you are probably safe. 

How you want to handle this problem is up to you.  You may want to bury you head in the sand like Intel, or you may want to inform your customers not to use the front USB.  We will honor the 1 year warranty on all motherboards.  Beyond that, you may need to take it up with the manufacturer.   Besides MSI which is our number one choice of motherboard, we are aware of the problem with Intel, Asus, Gigabyte, Supermicro, Tyan, ECS, DFI, Abit, Biostar, and Chaintech.   I am sure there are others. 

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