Intel announced a major recall for all 6-series chipsets, a critical move which involves the most important part of any Sandy Bridge platform, which is the motherboard. As we already know, the problem lies with a transistor with a thin gate oxide being driven by too high of a voltage, thus leading to degradation of SATA port performance which may also lead to malfunctions of hardware.

Hardware vendors and manufacturers woke up to the recall statement the same morning as us, and had no time to understand the situation before media called their hotline until they overheated. Intel announced the statement before discussing with manufacturers on how to handle the issue, and now it seemed that they’ve come to an understanding, as major partners of Intel are announcing recall programs for Sandy Bridge motherboards, which is all the motherboards with 6-series chipsets.

Gigabyte is the first to announce the recall program. All shipment of 6-series B2-stepping motherboards has been halt, and any unsold from distributors and dealers will be recalled. Any Gigabyte 6-series B2 motherboards that have already been sold will be accepted back for replacement with a B3 board, regardless of condition. This will have to wait until April at least, as by then B3-stepping boards will be ready at least.

Gigabyte also allows for a full refund, which you do not have to wait until April. Gigabyte recommends going the refund route as that gives you more flexibility for what you want to do next, like probably buying a new Z68 board which will be available by then too.

However, both Asus and MSI will be handling the exchange directly, omitting vendors and retailers. Asus’s page on the exchange is here, and MSI’s is here. It’s very simple too at here. The new B3-stepping boards are expected to be available in April, and you’ll ship your B2 stepping board in and you’ll receive a similar B3 stepping board in exchange.

For Asus, it’s a free 2-way “standard shipping” for both your B2-stepping boards, and the new B3-stepping boards. ASUS offers two options to expedite shipping. If you provide your credit card number ASUS will temporarily put a charge on your account for the MSRP of a replacement board and ship it to you in advance. Once ASUS receives your B2 board it will remove the charge from your account. The other option also involves you providing ASUS with your credit card number; however ASUS will not charge your card right away.

As soon as you have shipped your motherboard (and the carrier lists the package as In Transit), ASUS will ship out a replacement board. As long as there are no issues with the board you send in (e.g. serial numbers match and it’s eligible for RMA) then your credit card won’t be charged. ASUS mentions that the scope for exchanges is limited but it doesn’t mention a specific date.

MSI also provides free shipping and has committed to 3-day shipping both ways. You’ll have to register your board or MSI system before 30 April 2011, and you’ll get a pre-paid UPS label. By then, you’ll send off your board using that UPS label, and get your new board via UPS 3-day as well.

April is two months away so at the moment you can only stick to your current Sandy Bridge platform and avoid those SATA 3Gbps ports. There is no guarantee that you’ll get your replacement boards by April too, as the first recipients of B3 stepping chipsets will be large OEMs and notebook manufacturers.

Also, Gigabyte’s method of leaving it to retailers might be abit of troublesome for some customers, as some retailers do not accept refunds or exchange even in such situation. They might accept your board back now, but they might not accept the exchange by April when the new boards are available. Good luck in coming to terms with your retailer.