HP continues to ship defective Intel 6 series chipset to customers after recall.

Question

Something folks should be aware of is that HP has instituted a "fix" that isn't really a fix.  I had a DV7T QE (product number XN093AV) that was ordered in January.  The laptop was affected by the chipset issue and after about a month of checking back with HP customer service I was finally told that they had a resolution and that I could exchange my machine for one with the newly revised chipset.  The replacement machine was delivered to me in mid March, it was the identical product number (XN093AV) and contained the identical faulty chipset.
Some background for those not familiar with the chipset issue.  Intel initiated a recall of their 6 series (cougar point) southbridge chipset designed for use with the second generation core i-series "sandybridge" CPU's.  Among the chipset's functions is the SATA controller interface for storage devices.  The chipset manages 6 SATA ports, 2 at 6 Gb/s and 4 at 3 Gb/s.  It is the 3 Gb/s ports that are affected by the design flaw which can lead to data errors for an attached storage device.  Intel's mobile version of this chipset is called HM65 and the stepping (version) of the chipset with the problem is "B2".  Intel has implemented a silicon fix and released a new stepping "B3" which does not have the problem.  However, Intel has continued to ship the affected "B2" stepping to manufacturers for applications where only the 6 Gb/s ports would be used as they are unaffected by the design flaw.
Back to HP's "fix" - my original machine had the faulty "B2" stepping HM65 chipset with a hard drive connected to a 6 Gb/s port and an optical drive connected to one of the faulty 3 Gb/s ports.  The replacement machine I received also had the same "B2" stepping HM65 chipset with both drives now connected to the 6 Gb/s ports.  Unfortunately this isn't an acceptable solution on at least two fronts.  First, in addition to the primary hard drive bay and the optical drive bay this particular 17.3 inch laptop has a secondary hard drive bay.  I have independently purchased an SSD drive that I intend to install in addition to the factory installed drives.  This requires the use of a third port which would have to be one of the faulty 3 Gb/s ports.  Moreover the laptop also has an e-SATA connector for connecting to external drives which I intend to use for backups.  I didn't verify this but considering that the primary hard drive and the optical drive are consuming the only two working ports it stands to reason that the e-SATA connector is connected to one of the faulty ports.
After about 5 hours of being bounced around in the HP customer service void and being told that there was nothing wrong with my machine they agreed to exchange it yet again for one of the newly released DV7T QE models (product number XW899AV) which I am hoping will have the HM65 "B3" stepping chipset.  I haven't received it yet so I can't verify whether or not the new product has the same issue.  I will post when I do get it.
Does this impact you?  You can determine which stepping of the chipset you have by running CPU-Z, a free and widely trusted system utility, available at www.cpuid.com.  Select the mainboard tab and look at your chipset revision.  If you have the "B2" stepping and you intend to use more than two SATA devices at the same time you may have an issue.  The following link outlines your options from hp.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02712015&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=505...
I will point out that the answer to FAQ # 2 is definitively untrue.
Is HP still making products with the affected Intel chipset?
No. HP has stopped manufacturing products with the Intel technology at issue and has placed a shipment hold on products in HP and channel inventory.
Good luck.
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Thanks for clearing this up Dan.