HP, Dell laptops still advertised with faulty chip

Hewlett-Packard and Dell as of this afternoon were still advertising laptops with the Sandy Bridge processor--despite the fact that Intel has halted shipment of Sandy Bridge's accompanying chipset due to a flaw.

Intel announced yesterday that it had stopped shipment of the Second-Generation Intel Core (Sandy Bridge) chipset due to a circuit design "oversight." The defect in the "Cougar Point" chipset--which accompanies the main Sandy Bridge processor--can potentially affect access to a hard-disk drive, optical drive, or other device that connects to a computer using SATA technology.

Today, it was possible to order a Dell XPS 17 online, for example, with a Second-Generation Intel Core i7-2630QM processor and a delivery date of February 22 (the link to that Dell product page was not accessible from the Dell XPS 17 sales page front door, but was generated from a product search on Google Shopping). This system configuration was generated despite a statement from Intel yesterday that it had "discovered a design issue in a recently released support chip, the Intel 6 Series, code-named Cougar Point, and has implemented a silicon fix...[Intel] expects to begin delivering the updated version of the chipset to customers in late February and expects full volume recovery in April."

A Dell saleswoman said she was not aware of the Sandy Bridge flaw and gave a quote with a build time of "a couple of weeks."

Today, Dell issued this statement. "Dell and Intel are in communication regarding the design issue in the recently released Intel 6 Series (Sandy Bridge) support chip, code-name Cougar Point. This affects four currently available Dell products, the XPS 8300, the Vostro 460, the Alienware M17x R.3 and the Alienware Aurora R.3, as well as several other planned products including XPS 17 with 3D. We're committed to addressing this with customers who have already purchased one of the four products and will provide further details on this as it becomes available," Dell said.

HP, as of Pacific time this afternoon, is selling an "HP Pavilion dv6t Quad Edition" that also uses the Intel Core i7-2630QM processor (see graphic above). The salesperson contacted via HP's online sales site quoted a delivery date of March 1. An HP spokeswoman said Tuesday that HP has pushed out the build date to March 1 to allow for the time it will take to get fixed processors from Intel.

CNET Review's Rich Brown contributed to this story.