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From: Christopher Muto on 29 Jun 2010 12:10
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&emc=rss

this really is a scathing article. it has become news again because
dell documents discovered in the litigation surrounding this case
became public this month and because "Dell set aside $100 million this
month to handle a potential settlement with the Securities and Exchange
Commission over a five-year-old investigation into its books, which will
most likely result in federal accusations of fraud and misconduct
against the company�s founder, Michael S. Dell."

could not help but notice they mentioned that dell extended the warranty
on these system but the reporter failed to point out that dell never
informed its customers of the extended warranty (which says to me they
knew there was a problem but did not want to tell people about it - and
when a machine failed outside of the warranty for the very same reason
that they extended the warranty you had to fight with dell for them to
replace the faulty machine). the article did state that the failure to
recall the machines and so "customers may be unaware that they had
problematic computers or realize why their computers broke."

there is a lot of stuff in this article. dell is certainly not toyota.

the overall market if down 2.79% today and dell is down 4.79%.
From: William R. Walsh on 29 Jun 2010 12:19
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
From: Christopher Muto on 29 Jun 2010 12:36
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.
From: Ben Myers on 30 Jun 2010 02:08
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&emc=rss

I'm not exactly sure why the NY Times is recycling VERY OLD news... Ben
Myers
From: Ben Myers on 30 Jun 2010 02:11
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
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