Dell to UTA: Our computers, erm, aren't meant for doing math

[mkrishnan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/technology/29dell.html?hpw

Interesting story, not so much on the inferiority of Dell products, but on a corporate cover-up and the consequences of it becoming public.

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.

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.”

Documents recently unsealed in a three-year-old lawsuit against Dell show that the company’s employees were actually aware that the computers were likely to break. Still, the employees tried to play down the problem to customers and allowed customers to rely on trouble-prone machines, putting their businesses at risk. Even the firm defending Dell in the lawsuit was affected when Dell balked at fixing 1,000 suspect computers, according to e-mail messages revealed in the dispute.

The documents chronicling the failure of the PCs also help explain the decline of one of America’s most celebrated and admired companies. Perhaps more than any other company, Dell fought to lower the price of computers.

It also offers an interesting alternative to the market-driven kind of theory (e.g., Dell failed at delivering "cool" in the way that Apple does) about why Dell has declined in the last decade.

 

[Bkxmnr]

I really don't know anything about Dell, other than I hate their computers, but did this happen under Michael Dell's watch? Or had he left by then?

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I really don't know anything about Dell, other than I hate their computers, but did this happen under Michael Dell's watch? Or had he left by then?

based on the the article it did not happen under his watch and he took back over in 2008 so he went about trying to fix the problems and start building better computers. Or at least that is what I took from the article

 

[Eidorian]

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.

This plagued everyone at that time.

The problems affecting the Dell computers stemmed from an industrywide encounter with bad capacitors produced by Asian PC component suppliers. Capacitors are found on computer motherboards, playing a crucial role in the flow of current across the hardware. They are not meant to pop and leak fluid, but that is exactly what was happening earlier this decade, causing computers made by Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Apple and others to break.

 

[Synchromesh]

They were designed like crap then and they still are designed the same now. I always advise everyone against buying Dell laptops and desktops because they're junk. Their monitors, on the other hand are awesome, but from what I gather they're not really designed or made by Dell, only marketed as such.

 

[ravenvii]

They were designed like crap then and they still are designed the same now. I always advise everyone against buying Dell laptops and desktops because they're junk. Their monitors, on the other hand are awesome, but from what I gather they're not really designed or made by Dell, only marketed as such.

Eh, I have a cheap-o Dell Inspiron laptop, and it runs great.

Granted it's not my main computer, and I only used it for law school exams (and soon-to-be the bar exam) and occasional DVD-watching when I'm not at the desk.

 

[FX120]

This is just now popping up? I remember the optiplex recall when it happened back then, Dell hardly covered it up, in fact they came to my house and swapped out the parts affected. The problem if I recall was a faulty batch of capacitors came out of China. It was a big problem but Dell did handle the problem and fix peoples computers.

They were designed like crap then and they still are designed the same now. I always advise everyone against buying Dell laptops and desktops because they're junk. Their monitors, on the other hand are awesome, but from what I gather they're not really designed or made by Dell, only marketed as such.

This had nothing to do with Dell's design or their quality control. Their OEM manufacturer was sold bad raw low-level components that were manufactured improperly. It wouldn't have shown up right away since the problem happened as the capacitors aged. It could have happened to any electronics manufacturer regardless of their QC processes in place.

 

[7thMac]

They were designed like crap then and they still are designed the same now. I always advise everyone against buying Dell laptops and desktops because they're junk. Their monitors, on the other hand are awesome, but from what I gather they're not really designed or made by Dell, only marketed as such.

You're entitled to your opinion. We have many Latitude laptops where I work and they have proven to be exceptionally reliable over the years. Though I don't love their screens, the Latitudes are built very well.

 

[mkrishnan]

This plagued everyone at that time.

Correct -- the same component flaws have been widely theorized to be at the root of a lot of the G3-G4 Mac failures, too...

 

[chrono1081]

Ha, you think this is bad.

I know no one will probably believe what I'm about to say since this is the internet and all but a co-worker of mine worked for Dell for YEARS and explained some of their dirtiness...

..Such as the fact that while he worked there if you called in and applied for credit your social, address, phone number, etc was taken by Dell...normal for a credit check right?

Whats NOT normal was this information was NOT stored in a computer but instead on paper ledgers in books and these ledgers had no accountability. Dell hired temps to do this work and my co-worker said a temp would quit and take the book with them.

He worked there from 1997 - 2003 so hopefully something has changed since then but the issue was brought up in the "Fireside chats with Michael Dell" and I guess no one seemed to care.

The rest of the dirtiness didn't effect the customer, but ended up in Dell getting scammed by customers. Dell didn't keep accurate records of certain things and customers were ordering free battery replacements for recalled/defective batteries and found a loop hole to getting them in bulk and ended up selling them on eBay.

 

[Synchromesh]

You're entitled to your opinion. We have many Latitude laptops where I work and they have proven to be exceptionally reliable over the years. Though I don't love their screens, the Latitudes are built very well.

My opinion is based on my experience. I used to fix laptops so I took many apart. Dell and Sony had some of the worst designs ever. Especially Sony but Dell was "special" too. At several jobs I had Dell laptops too. They died on me more than once and I used them as desktops about 99.9% of the time.

Sure, some people get lucky. But in general they're cheap crap that they are.

 

[Schtumple]

Ha, you think this is bad.

I know no one will probably believe what I'm about to say since this is the internet and all but a co-worker of mine worked for Dell for YEARS and explained some of their dirtiness...

..Such as the fact that while he worked there if you called in and applied for credit your social, address, phone number, etc was taken by Dell...normal for a credit check right?

Whats NOT normal was this information was NOT stored in a computer but instead on paper ledgers in books and these ledgers had no accountability. Dell hired temps to do this work and my co-worker said a temp would quit and take the book with them.

He worked there from 1997 - 2003 so hopefully something has changed since then but the issue was brought up in the "Fireside chats with Michael Dell" and I guess no one seemed to care.

The rest of the dirtiness didn't effect the customer, but ended up in Dell getting scammed by customers. Dell didn't keep accurate records of certain things and customers were ordering free battery replacements for recalled/defective batteries and found a loop hole to getting them in bulk and ended up selling them on eBay.

Nothing seems too outlandish here, I can believe it, every big corporation has some kind of illegal activity occurring secretly by employees.