Uniwill manufacture mainboards (motherboards): a large one (ref: P71EN0) and a smaller one (ref: P50EN0). Both have an integrated Serial ATA (SATA) RAID Controller (manufactured by
Via with ref: VIA VT6421) but there is a serious defect.
This defect has become known as the 'lagging issue', and is actually an unknown type of communication problem between the Hard Disc Drive and the RAID controller, regardless of the RAID being set to 0 or 1, or the number of Hard Disc Drives.
These defective mainboards (motherboards) are installed in a great many Amilo M series PC-notebooks (laptop computers) manufacturered by Fujitsu-Siemens and sold worldwide.
PC-notebook (laptop) use and performance is disrupted: music and video games lag or stutter, freeze, and hang. Video editing, music and audio software, CAD software and even office software can be so seriously affected that users are devising work-arounds or trying to get repairs under warranty and guarantees.
Unfortunately there is no solution to this hardware problem as yet, although in some countries, Fujitsu-Siemens's Amilo M series PC-notebooks (laptops) have been withdrawn from sale, and in others the prices have been greatly
reduced.
It is a manufacturer's defect -- however there are three manufacturers involved: the PC-notebooks (laptops) are manufactured by Fujitsu-Siemens, the mainboard (motherboard) is manufactured by Uniwell and the RAID controller is manufactured by Via technologies.
The affected models of the Fujitsu-Siemens notebooks (laptops) have the pattern 'Amilo M (variable) Four Three (variable) G'.
So the following models have the problem mainboard (motherboard) installed:
Amilo M
143
7G
Amilo M
143
9G
Amilo M
343
8G
Amilo M
443
8G
Fujitsu-Siemens have known about the lagging issue since 29 November 2005, and have confirmed (to
"karl_s" of West Sussex, UK) that the problem is
caused by the RAID controller communicating with the Hard Disc drive. As such there are variations in the lag strength and noticeability depending on the PC notebook (laptop) set up:
The faster the hard drive rpm, the weaker the lag.
Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M x43x PC-notebooks (laptops) with a slow Samsung Hard Drive have the worst lag.
Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M x43x PC-notebooks (laptops) with Fujitsu Hard Drives are next best,
and Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M x43x PC-notebooks (laptops) with really fast (7200 rpm) Seagate Hard drives have the least noticeable lag.
Thanks to "Borkar" (obviously)!
Maybe people posting here can help Fujitsu-Siemen, Via & Uniwill find a solution by always remembering to state (a) the Amilo model reference (b) the hard drive make and
speed and if possible the Uniwill mainboard/ motherboard reference (P71EN0 or P50EN0)
--cheers!