An embarrassed Hewlett-Packard Co confesses that it has discovered and corrected a flaw in the manufacturing process that may affects up to 20,000 workstations currently in use by customers. The company said it will bear the costs associated with repairs or replacements and it does not expect a significant financial impact from the repair programme – clarifying that by saying it should not impact its quarterly results. The problem affects some machines using PA-7100 and PA-7150 processors, HP 9000 Model 735/125 and 755/125 workstations, including cluster configurations, and HP 9000 735/99, 755/99, 747i/100 and 745i/100 workstations shipped or CPU boards replaced since November 1994; HP 9000 G/H/I model 50, 60 and 70 servers or boards shipped since October 1994; HP 3000 987/RX/SX, 987/150/RX/SX and 987/200/RX/SX servers or boards shipped since October could also be affected, although there have been no reports. The fault can result in inconsistent system behaviour by corrupting data or showing a system machine check message on a user’s screen. The company will make tests available so customers can test these machines. It says it is the first flaw to have been found in its workstations or its servers.
