Q: What’s the problem?
A: Some of the SATA ports that come off of the Intel 6-series PCH or Peripheral Control Hub may begin producing errors over time. The problem isn’t immediate, but can happen over time. That means that a port that is working fine today, may start to generate data errors. This will affect performance and the port may simply stop working over time. Increased thermals and voltage on the ports may also contribute to the port failing sooner. The only good news is that ports 0/1 are unaffected by the bug.
Q: Can this be fixed with a new BIOS or some other firmware update?
A: No. The problem is a hardware issue that cannot be fixed without replacing the affected chipset on the system. Since you can’t simply replace a chipset in a motherboard, the only way to fix it would be to complete replace the motherboard.
Q: So which ports are bad on my motherboard again?
A: Intel’s PCH supports six ports. Of those, ports 0/1 are unaffected. These are also the SATA 6Gb/s ports. The remaining four SATA 3Gb/s ports may or may not exhibit the breakdown over time. Many motherboards also support additional ports using third-party controllers such as Marvell’s SATA 6Gb/s. These would be unaffected. eSATA ports on the rear of the motherboard should also be unaffected as those mostly use third-party controllers from Jmicron.
