The information below was originally posted by us on 9th November 2002 in respect of Fujitsu Hard Drives Model MPG3xxx.
It has become common knowledge within the computer industry that there is
an unusually high failure rate of a particular model of Fujitsu hard drives.
The drive models can be identified as MPG3xxx and are of varying sizes. The
sizes are 10, 20, 30 & 40 gig. It has been reported that MPE3xxx &
MPF3xxx drives are also failing but the failure rate is very much lower. Fujitsu
are aware of this problem and will look at each case on an individual basis.
When the drive fails it will do so with no warning and will cause data loss.
You are therefore advised that if you find that you have one of these drives
within your system to take the precaution of backing up your data. You are
NOT being informed that you drive will fail but to take the precaution in
case it does. There is a company called 1st Computer Traders who will try
to recover data for you, but the diagnostic alone will cost £95 + v.a.t.
If the data can be recovered then the price will be in the region of £900.
If you still have a drive that has failed and wish to see if Fujitsu will
cover it under warranty then please contact them. The problem is not confined
to the European market but is worldwide. Although in the UK there has been
one major manufacturer of PC's that used this drive extensively there are
a few manufacturers world wide. The main UK manufacturer was Tiny Computers.
However, most people know that Tiny have gone bust. Therefore warranty replacement
for originally fitted drives are not valid. Also drives sold as upgrades within
the end user sector are also effected are covered in some cases by 3 year
warranties and might be able to be replaced. Also if you have one of these
drives that has failed the PC Association would like to here from you.
Since this time there has been further developments worldwide in respect of the unusually high failure rate of the above mentioned drives.
Below is the official response from The PC Association.
PC ASSOCIATION
PO Box 48, Royston, Herts, UK SG8 6JS
Admin@pcauk.org Fax (+44) (0) 1763 261907
INFORMATION -NOVEMBER 2002
FUJITSU MPG3 series HARD DISK DRIVES
The following information is given as being accurate to the best of our knowledge, but because of the lack of openness shown by Fujitsu relating to this matter there is, of necessity, a degree of speculation involved in compiling this information. Anything herein that is not a matter of fact is offered as "fair comment". The PC Association can accept no responsibility for any loss or damage resulting from acting upon, or failing to act upon the views expressed herein. The PC Association is not a legal advisor.
The Personal Computer Association is a not for profit trade organisation operating for and on behalf of its members, which by and large are involved in the UK computer industry. It was established in 1993 and members include national and international manufacturers, distributors and retailers of computers and components.
We would state at the outset that until this issue arose, Fujitsu had built a well-deserved reputation as a manufacturer of good quality low-cost disk drives.
The issue of alleged faulty MPG3 series disk drives was brought to the attention of the PC Association in late summer 2002, and was discussed by members during the PCA's annual conference in September. The members requested the Association to investigate the situation. As the result of publicity, primarily in on-line computer news publications, the Association received more than 50 complaints from businesses and users world-wide; one of the publications received over 500 e-mails, their biggest-ever response to a news item.
SYMPTOMS
With little or no prior warning drives are not recognised by the system, programmes
and data are not found. The loss is irrecoverable by normal user actions.
FAILURE RATES & TIMESCALE
Reported failure rates ranged from 10% to over 80%, with an average being
about 40%. Ambient and operating temperature, and power-on-hours probably
have some degree of influence as to when the devices fail, with a lot of failures
apparently occurring after about 12 - 14 months use; however it may be that
this is when failures become an issue worth reporting, in that within 12 months
the drives have generally been replaced without fuss, under guarantee.
LEGAL ACTION - FUJITSU & CIRRUS LOGIC
Fujitsu claims, in court papers* lodged in the United States in December 2001,
that Cirrus Logic, a supplier of controller chips used in their MPG3xxx hard
disk drives, supplied them with up to 4.9 million faulty controller chips
during 2000 - 2001. They claim that a reformulation of the epoxy mould compound
used in the chips causes them to short circuit and fail prematurely. Fujitsu
admit they started to receive complaints from their customers about failing
drives from May 2001, and that "by July 2001, Fujitsu had received enough
customer complaints to recognise that a mass chip failure was occurring".
Furthermore, Fujitsu also states that "these defects already have caused
a substantial number of chips to fail (and with them the drives in which they
were installed)" and " … it is highly likely that a significant
number of additional chips will short and cause their drives to fail."
For reference, Cirrus Logic has filed a third party claim against Amcor Technology Inc as being the company that recommended and sold them the goods that allegedly failed, Amcor in turn have made a claim against Sumitomo Bakelite Co Ltd the company that sold the alleged defective goods to Amcor.
This would seem - in effect - to be an admission from Fujitsu that they knew the probable scale and probable scope of the problem in July 2001, as well as the cost implications. Fujitsu admit that the cost of replacing a faulty disk drive "can approach $300 per replacement".
The forgoing information was not general knowledge at the time the Association started investigating the situation, in late September 2002.
LEGAL CLAIM - CLASS ACTION
A class action on behalf of American end-users was lodged on 23rd October
2002 in the Superior Court of the State of California, Santa Clara County,
against Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard and up to 100 currently unnamed defendants
(expected to be mostly computer manufacturers). To clarify: this class action
is on behalf of users and against manufacturers.
GUARANTEE / WARRANTY
Guarantees are variable and present opportunity for misunderstanding. If you
are an end-user, your guarantee is with your supplier - typically the computer
manufacturer. If you have one-year guarantee and the drive fails at 13 months,
then that (normally) would be that. It's your problem. See "THIS ISN'T
NORMAL" below. Standard recommendation given by all computer manufacturers
worth their salt, and by the PC Association, is that users are responsible
for backing up their data regularly. The PC Association has stated that hard
drives may fail and that since this is where all your important data resides
you must be prudent and back up frequently. The fact of the matter is, of
course, that few users back up their data as frequently as they should.
For the trade the problem is - in many ways - a lot worse. Some manufacturers may give a two or three year warranty on their computers, but if they themselves have received only a 12 month guarantee on some of the parts they've used, they may be taking a considerable risk - which has become painfully apparent due to this problem. Some OEM customers and trade distributors of Fujitsu drives may have purchased their drives from the company with a guarantee longer than 12 months - the wisdom of this is now apparent.
With regard to orphaned products, Fujitsu says that if an end-user has bought a computer - with one of their drives - from a company that has subsequently gone out of business, and if the customer can prove that the computer was bought less than 12 months ago then (generally) they will honour the warranty
Fujitsu Customer service (UK)
Phone: +44 (0) 20 8848 5180
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home
FUJITSU'S RESPONSE
From information received it seems that Fujitsu's attempts to contain the
problem generally consist of some or all of the following:
Denial.
There is no problem.
It's the way the computer manufacturer has installed the drive
Inference that it's a customer problem
We have received reports from some customers of higher than expected failure
rates on certain desktop drive models.
High failure rates are "exceptional cases".
Must have been badly handled / transported
Not our problem
We don't provide guarantees to end-users, any problem is the OEM's
However, it seems that behind the scenes Fujitsu was attempting to handle
the problem by containing it. They have APPARENTLY co-operated in replacement
programmes with some of their major OEM's, Compaq has been named in this respect.
Furthermore, they have reportedly co-operated with some other OEM's and Value
Added Resellers and have recompensed them for costs involved in replacing
drives under cover of the secrecy imposed by Non Disclosure Agreements. Indeed
their admission of up to $300 replacement costs would seem to indicate some
experience in this respect.
Will handle within warranty only
If it's failed outside of normal warranty, it's your problem.
To the best of our knowledge Fujitsu has never publicly admitted (outside of the court papers) that there is anything in particular amiss with these drives
RECOMPENSE AND RESTITUTION
THIS ISN'T NORMAL: If this drive failure was an isolated occurrence, an unusual
exception to the manufacturer's specification for their product of a mean
time between failures (MTBF) of many tens of thousands of power-on hours,
we would have to say that "these things happen", and it would be
right for the drive manufacturer to countenance no claim outwith warranty.
However with regard to the Fujitsu MPG3 series drives we cannot support that view because:
Fujitsu know of the problem but took no action - AND HAVE STILL TAKEN NO ACTION - to alert users that there existed and still exists a very strong likelihood that an abnormal and significantly large proportion of these drives will fail long before anyone might normally expect failure to occur. As an example of this, we know of one computer manufacturer that purchased similar quantities of drives from Fujitsu and a competitor, at about the same time. To date none of the competitors drives have failed, whilst 20% of the Fujitsu have.
Had Fujitsu issued an alert - at least to the trade - then customers could have been warned of the massively increased potential for data loss and could have taken action accordingly. Furthermore, the computer manufacturers could have taken action to replace drives they know to be at risk before they failed.
SO WHY DIDN'T FUJITSU ISSUE A WARNING?
It can only be assumed that Fujitsu wanted to minimise the costs to itself
of this problem on the basis that if most of the drives fail outside warranty
they will have no warranty costs associated with them. If they admit to the
problem (and perhaps recall the drives) they are faced with repaying - as
a minimum - the replacement value of all the drives potentially affected -
perhaps 4.9 million of them.
However this apparent decision to stonewall may yet backfire on the company. If the class action in the USA were successful then the company would be forced to rectify and recompense, as well as paying punitive damages. Furthermore, many customers throughout the world would take success in the USA as a signal and precedent to launch their own legal claims.
But what if you can't wait that long? Well, perhaps the "admissions" contained in Fujitsu's court case against Cirrus Logic might underpin a legal claim against the company now. E-mail the PC Association at kw@pcauk.org to enquire about obtaining a copy of the legal papers.
CAN ANYTHING BE DONE TO RECOVER DATA?
Often, yes. But you'll have to pay. Data recovery specialists will charge
you between £350 - £1000 to recover data from your failed drives.
The data is usually copied to another hard drive and/or supplied to you on
CD. Some recovery companies will charge you up front (they'll have to do the
work, even if they can't recover the data at the end of it all) others may
be willing to be paid on performance. Contact the PC Association for details
of those of our Members who offer this service.
On some hardware forums on the Internet you may read that changing the controller will solve the problem. We cannot vouch for this and besides, such a route should never be attempted if you are not technically competent, and it may render the data completely irrecoverable. You might also read that chilling the drive in the refrigerator, or the controller chip with a freezer spray may sometimes cause it to come alive long enough to recover data. We cannot vouch for this either.
FURTHER IMPLICATIONS
We have no facts on which to base the following train of thought. Is the alleged
faulty product from Sumitomo / Armcor / Cirrus Logic - and the problems allegedly
caused - relevant only to Fujitsu drives? If yes, is that because it was only
ever sold to Fujitsu, or might it be that it was sold to other HDD or component
manufacturers who might have a slightly different application. In the latter
case, then might it simply be a matter of time before products from other
manufacturers start to evince similar problems?
Conspiracy theorists might make something of the fact that round about the time these problems publicly surfaced, many of Fujitsu's competitors reduced the length of their guarantees from two or even three years, back down to one - the minimum they could get away with.
Best be safe. Always back up data regularly.
*Reference: Counterclaim of Fujitsu Limited: Case No C01-20987 ARB, United
States District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division.
Fujitsu's counterclaim papers dated December 17 2001, Cirrus Logic's claim
lodged October 19th 2001.
© Copyright PC Association 2002. This document may be copied and freely
distributed in its complete form either electronically or in hard copy. If
edited then attribution must be made.
Further to our original post a letter has been forwarded to us from 1st Computer Traders which reads as follows
Thank you for your enquiry with regards to the repairing of Fujitsu drives. As hard drive specialists we tend to be one of the first to discover recurring hard drive faults. We are also quick to find a way of getting these drives working for our Data Recovery services and also our repair services. Unfortunately we have been unable to find a way of repairing these drives to a satisfactory standard and don't believe that it is economically possible. We are able to recover the data off these drives though. If you have any questions or queries on this or any other matter please let me know.
1st Computer Traders
Tel: +44 (0)1827 55555
Once again we are not saying you are going to definatly have a drive that fails, but to take precautions against losing any valuable data by backing it up.
If you have any further questions please email us by clicking on the link below:-