In Faulty-Computer Suit, Window to Dell Decline
in [Dell]
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From: lgreenwood on 30 Jun 2010 09:12 On Jun 30, 12:08 am, Ben Myers <ben_my...(a)charter.net> wrote: > On 6/29/2010 10:11 AM, WaIIy wrote: > > > > > After the math department at the University of Texas noticed some of its > > Dell computers failing, Dell examined the machines. The company came up > > with an unusual reason for the computers demise: the school had > > overtaxed the machines by making them perform difficult math > > calculations. > > > Michael S. Dell, Dells founder and chairman, presented the model of > > computer involved in the lawsuit in 2002. > > > Internal documents show Dell shipped at least 11.8 million computers > > from May 2003 to July 2005 that could fail. > > > Dell, however, had actually sent the university, in Austin, desktop PCs > > riddled with faulty electrical components that were leaking chemicals > > and causing the malfunctions. Dell sold millions of these computers from > > 2003 to 2005 to major companies like Wal-Mart and Wells Fargo, > > institutions like the Mayo Clinic and small businesses. > > > The funny thing was that every one of them went bad at the same time, > > said Greg Barry, the president of PointSolve, a technology services > > company near Philadelphia that had bought dozens. Its unheard-of, but > > Dell didnt seem to recognize this as a problem at the time > > >http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/technology/29dell.html?partner=rss&.... > > I'm not exactly sure why the NY Times is recycling VERY OLD news... Ben > Myers According to the article, the court documents just became unsealed.
From: Christopher Muto on 30 Jun 2010 10:23 Ben Myers wrote: > On 6/29/2010 12:36 PM, Christopher Muto wrote: >> William R. Walsh wrote: >>> Hi! >>> >>>> dell is certainly not toyota. >>> >>> In this case, it seems there is a lot of similarity...Dell began to >>> realize there was a problem, made up a story (difficult math killing >>> computers? oooookay...) and after being pressured, they tried to fix >>> affected systems with varying degrees of success. And now there's a >>> legal storm brewing. >>> >>> Sounds a lot like what Toyota recently went through to me... :-) >>> >>> William >> >> i suspect dell was trying to suggest that the school was over-clocking >> the computers and that is not an unreasonable conclusion so early on in >> this case. over-clocking is arguably a legitimate reason to void the >> warranty. but as the issue became abundantly clear to dell, and the >> entire industry, dell fell flat on its face in how it choose to handle >> the situation. it is like toyota in as far as it being a massive >> unintentional reputation damaging quality control problem, but it is >> unlike toyota in terms of standing up to inform customers of the >> situation and atempting to proactively fix the problem. then again it is >> highly unlikely for someone to get killed by a computer... though there >> is the potential for fire due to these leaky capacitors. > > Have you figured out how to overclock an Optiplex GX270? I sure > haven't, except possibly by hacking the BIOS... Ben Myers have i? no. is it possible? with enough effort it likely is. but that wasn't my point. i was just giving dell the benefit of the doubt that their initial absurd claims against the school may have been based in reality and they could have backed off those initial claims when they came to the realization that the problem was widespread. sounds like you are a harsher critic of dell than me by saying that the machines can't be over clocked and so dell must have known from the start that they had been selling defective computers and just didn't want to honor their warranty.
From: Christopher Muto on 30 Jun 2010 10:25 lgreenwood(a)srt.com wrote: > On Jun 30, 12:08 am, Ben Myers <ben_my...(a)charter.net> wrote: >> On 6/29/2010 10:11 AM, WaIIy wrote: >> >> >> >>> After the math department at the University of Texas noticed some of its >>> Dell computers failing, Dell examined the machines. The company came up >>> with an unusual reason for the computers� demise: the school had >>> overtaxed the machines by making them perform difficult math >>> calculations. >>> Michael S. Dell, Dell�s founder and chairman, presented the model of >>> computer involved in the lawsuit in 2002. >>> Internal documents show Dell shipped at least 11.8 million computers >>> from May 2003 to July 2005 that could fail. >>> Dell, however, had actually sent the university, in Austin, desktop PCs >>> riddled with faulty electrical components that were leaking chemicals >>> and causing the malfunctions. Dell sold millions of these computers from >>> 2003 to 2005 to major companies like Wal-Mart and Wells Fargo, >>> institutions like the Mayo Clinic and small businesses. >>> �The funny thing was that every one of them went bad at the same time,� >>> said Greg Barry, the president of PointSolve, a technology services >>> company near Philadelphia that had bought dozens. �It�s unheard-of, but >>> Dell didn�t seem to recognize this as a problem at the time >>> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/technology/29dell.html?partner=rss&... >> I'm not exactly sure why the NY Times is recycling VERY OLD news... Ben >> Myers > > According to the article, the court documents just became unsealed. not only were there documents that were recently unsealed, the $100 million dell set aside to pay for a potential settlement with the sec investigation of financial misconduct is also brand new this month.
From: Ben Myers on 30 Jun 2010 12:06 On 6/30/2010 10:23 AM, Christopher Muto wrote: > Ben Myers wrote: >> On 6/29/2010 12:36 PM, Christopher Muto wrote: >>> William R. Walsh wrote: >>>> Hi! >>>> >>>>> dell is certainly not toyota. >>>> >>>> In this case, it seems there is a lot of similarity...Dell began to >>>> realize there was a problem, made up a story (difficult math killing >>>> computers? oooookay...) and after being pressured, they tried to fix >>>> affected systems with varying degrees of success. And now there's a >>>> legal storm brewing. >>>> >>>> Sounds a lot like what Toyota recently went through to me... :-) >>>> >>>> William >>> >>> i suspect dell was trying to suggest that the school was over-clocking >>> the computers and that is not an unreasonable conclusion so early on in >>> this case. over-clocking is arguably a legitimate reason to void the >>> warranty. but as the issue became abundantly clear to dell, and the >>> entire industry, dell fell flat on its face in how it choose to handle >>> the situation. it is like toyota in as far as it being a massive >>> unintentional reputation damaging quality control problem, but it is >>> unlike toyota in terms of standing up to inform customers of the >>> situation and atempting to proactively fix the problem. then again it is >>> highly unlikely for someone to get killed by a computer... though there >>> is the potential for fire due to these leaky capacitors. >> >> Have you figured out how to overclock an Optiplex GX270? I sure >> haven't, except possibly by hacking the BIOS... Ben Myers > > have i? no. is it possible? with enough effort it likely is. but that > wasn't my point. i was just giving dell the benefit of the doubt that > their initial absurd claims against the school may have been based in > reality and they could have backed off those initial claims when they > came to the realization that the problem was widespread. sounds like you > are a harsher critic of dell than me by saying that the machines can't > be over clocked and so dell must have known from the start that they had > been selling defective computers and just didn't want to honor their > warranty. In a word, yes. I am critical of Dell for its overclocking red herring, knowing the difficulty that a Dell BIOS poses to overclocking. I am not a fan of overclocking and never will be, because of the potential it has to make a system unstable, unreliable, or even dead. For that, I support Dell's (and Intel's and HPaq's and Acer-eGatemachines') efforts to prevent overclocking of their mobos... Ben Myers
From: BillW50 on 30 Jun 2010 12:36 Ben Myers wrote on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 12:06:50 -0400: > In a word, yes. I am critical of Dell for its overclocking red herring, > knowing the difficulty that a Dell BIOS poses to overclocking. I am not > a fan of overclocking and never will be, because of the potential it has > to make a system unstable, unreliable, or even dead. For that, I > support Dell's (and Intel's and HPaq's and Acer-eGatemachines') efforts > to prevent overclocking of their mobos... Ben Myers I can see the concern about overclocking... but I don't see why they also block underclocking? As fans either run at a very slow speed or turn off altogether running underclocked. And it is really nice in a quiet room. ;-) -- Bill 2 Asus EEE PC 7014G ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC 2 Asus EEE PC 7028G ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC Windows XP SP2/SP3 ~ Xandros Linux
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