Dell on Wednesday said it will start reaching out directly to affected customers to replace motherboards in PCs with Intel's flawed Sandy Bridge chipset.

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The company will offer a free motherboard replacement to customers who purchased the XPS 8300, Vostro 460, Alienware Aurora desktops or the Alienware M17x R3 laptop and received it prior to March 1. Some PCs could contain a faulty Intel chipset code-named Cougar Point as the systems were shipped prior to Dell becoming aware of the issue, the PC maker said.

"Our teams will begin contacting customers with affected motherboards this week to offer them a new replacement motherboard that corrects the Cougar Point chipset issue. The replacement motherboard and the associated service (service options may vary by region) will be provided to affected customers at no charge," the company said in a blog.

"We ... will work through these motherboard replacements over the next several weeks," the company said.

Intel in late January announced a design defect in the chipset, which was used in PCs alongside new Sandy Bridge processors, which were announced in early January. PC makers such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo halted shipment of PCs that paired Intel's latest Core i5 and i7 processors with the defective chipset. PC makers also provided remedies such as refunds or motherboard replacements to customers who had already purchased systems.

Intel said the Serial-ATA (SATA) controller within the defective chipset could degrade over time and could impact performance or functionality of storage devices such as hard drives.

Intel quickly fixed the problem and in mid-February started shipping new chipsets that corrected the error. New consumer and business laptops announced by Dell, HP, Lenovo and other PC makers are not affected by the issue.

Cleveland Indians 2011 Season Outlook Part II

Image via WikipediaStarting Pitching
Fausto Carmona enters the 2011 season as the Tribe's ace. After trying to find his form of 2007 for the better part of 2008 and 2009, Carmona found some stability last year and really finished the season strong. After Carmona, the Indians will likely slot Justin Masterson, Carlos Carrasco and Josh Tomlin. The fifth starter will be decided in camp. One name no longer in the running is the serviceable Aaron Laffey who was just traded to Seattle for infielder Matt Lawson. Masterson is being given the shot to prove he is a viable starter in the big leagues. If he can be more consistent and keep is BB/9 in the low threes, his stuff is dominant enough to let him stick. This is the year Carrasco must make the leap from prospect status. Based on what he did in his late season stint with the Tribe last year, that jump could realistically happen and it'll be fun to watch. After the top three, the talent falls off fairly dramatically. While there is still hope that someone will emerge to seize the opportunity, let's not hold our breath. Just for the record, here are some of the names under consideration; Mitch "The Fury" Talbot, David Huff, Anthony Reyes, Don Schulze and Josh Tomlin. I know, right?

Bullpen
One area that shined for the Indians last year was their bullpen. And from a stockpile of prospects acquired in roster clearing deals over the past few years, a bonafide closer has emerged. Chris "Pure Rage" Perez was dominant after being handed the closer role full time last June. From June 28th until season's end, Perez had an ungodly 0.53 ERA. He finished the year with a 1.71 ERA overall and 23 saves (the youngest Indian to convert 20 or more saves). Of course predicting the success of any MLB bullpen from year-to-year is akin to correctly guessing tonight's mega millions numbers. That said, the Tribe has some live arms and relievers who are looking to build on last year's success. Raffy Perez seems to have finally righted himself and will be the late inning lefty specialist. Jensen Lewis is out of options and thus assured a spot in the pen. Others in the mix are Josh Judy, Vinnie Pestano, Frank Herrmann, Tony Sipp and Joe Smith. Newly acquired Chad Durbin will almost assuredly make the final 25 man roster. All-in-all, Manny Acta will have numerous solid options to choose from. And, if anyone falters, there will be viable replacements waiting in the wings in Columbus.

Summary
If the Indians can score enough runs and play solid enough infield defense to get the game to Chris "Pure Rage" Perez in the 9th, they have a chance to hang around and make the AL Central interesting. I'm not saying they're going to content this year, rather they should continue to build around the core of Choo, Santana, Carmona and Perez. If one or two others can progress (I'm looking at you Matt LaPorta and Michael Brantley), this could develop into a very fun to watch mid market team that could contend for the Central title next year.

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• Carmona named Opening Day starter (mlb.mlb.com)