I am responsible for keeping 250 PC’s up and running 24/7. Every single one of those PC’s is a Dell

So I can share with you the most common problems I have encountered and give you some advice on how to deal with it.

Remember chances are you will never have a problem with your Dell but if you do:-

In no particular order

1) Faulty Memory: Run the diagnostics from the Dell CD, Try re-seating the memory, try swapping the memory simms about. Try new memory.

2) Faulty Hard Disk: At the bios screen hold down Contol-Alt and Press D. This will perform a quick diagnostic test. If it fails contact Dell Technical support immediately. If your hard disk is making a loud clicking noise. Backup immediately and contact Dell Technical support.

3) Faulty Heat Sink or Fan: If your PC’s fan is unusually loud like Hoover loud your heat sink or fan cant keep the system cool enough. Contact Dell Technical support.

4) Motherboard Problems: In the picture below I have circled 4 Capacitors. Notice the first one is totally flat but 2,3 and 4 all all raised. Those capacitors are faulty and would cause the system to blue screen and eventually die.

Tip: Always get 3 year warranty with Dell equipment as all the above items would be covered.

Tip: check out Dell’s Support Forums: Link http://www.dellcommunity.com/

If you would like to add to this article do so in the comments.

If you have either Windows Vista Business or Vista Ultimate you can if you wish downgrade your operating system back to Windows XP.

The topic of Downgrade rights raises some questions so I try to answer these in the presentation below.

Microsoft have also prepared a PDF with all the questions you might have.

Link to PDF: http://www.colindiponio.com/downgradeOEMversion.pdf

If you are unsure about your rights contact Microsoft or your I.T Partner.

Click the Presentation to Play.

This screencast requires the Flash plug in. You can get it here

Are you a North West based business looking for a really smart I.T Consultant? get in touch I can help you Tel: 01606-841587.

Please feel free to link to this content, I update regularly.

My 2007 Screencast Links:
http://www.colindiponio.com/category/screencast/

Thanks

Colin

I don’t usually deal with the Dell Dimension range. I stick the the business ranges of Optiplex/Latitude and Precision.

But Chris the guy who does all our web projects needed a second machine with some oomph.

We chose a Dell Dimension 9200 with a decent specification

Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 2.4GHZ 4mb Cache

640mb Hard Disk with a raid controller

4gb of Ram even thought Windows Vista only reports 3gb (this is a 32bit memory thing that affects all Windows 32bit operating systems with 4gb).

Nvidia 7900GS 256mb Video Card

Windows Vista Ultimate.

First impressions

The Dimension 9200 is one of the heaviest computers I have ever lifted, the thing weighs a ton (like Server heavy).

If you dropped it on your foot you would be going to hospital.

The thing has several fans and one really prominent one at the front grill. During the initial boot the fan is spinning hard  and is really noisy but thankfully its spins down after about 30 seconds.

Yes you can see through the hole. It must be to improve air flow. I would describe the white case as Star Wars Storm Trooper white (which is cool really). The side panels are metal.

The Vista Ultimate install takes about 15mins.

During the Vista automated install the first prompt I saw was an error message the “There is no disk in the Drive”. I just hit cancel and moved on. A novice computer user might be concerned and panic when greeted with an error during the install. Not a good out of the box experience. Remember this is the first thing the user sees after the bios screen. This did not appear on subsequent reboots.

Performance

The Windows Experience Index is 5.3 and breaks down into

Processor 5.3
Ram 5.6
Graphics 5.9
Gaming 5.8
Hard Disk 5.7

I was surprised that this CPU ranked 5.3 (my Laptop Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz got 4.9)

If you don’t know what the Windows Experience Index is see here:

Link to Screencast- Windows Vista Experience Index

So you get a lot of bang for your buck.

When I picked my own Desktop computer I chose a Precision Workstation 390 (on the left). I don’t have any user envy (yet) but my initial thoughts on the Dimension 9200 are positive. I will check in with Chris in a few weeks and see how its working for him.

Microsoft’s Windows live writer seems to be coming of age.

This is a free tool to allow you to create blog posts but in a software application very much like a word processor. The alternative is to use the editing tools in your blogging software. In my case that’s Wordpress.

I tried an early beta of Live Writer, and it failed to create and publish a test post. So when the latest beta came out I thought I would give it a try and it works great.

This post was created in Live Writer and you can edit your post offline and then publish when ready.

Here is an example of the Writing interface in Wordpress. 

Here is an example of the Writing interface in Windows Live Writer. 

The key benefits are Spell checking, good image upload support and the ability to design in your blog template offline.

I am going to use Windows Live Writer for the rest of the week but so far I am really impressed.

If all goes well I will do a quick Screencast.

Link: http://writer.live.com/

I found this in the clip in this Morning’s Microsoft Download RSS Feed and I know how hard it is to find good hi-def video clips to show off on your hi-def TV.

Unless you have a 1080p display dont bother.

Elephant’s Dream 10-25 Mbps
Brief Description
Optimal encode for Xbox 360 Spring ‘07 update
High quality 1920×1080 24p .wmv clip

It’s a whopping 830mb

This clip simultaneously demosntrates the high quality and efficient compression our current released version of the VC-1 codec can provide, and the high performance video decoding in the Xbox 360 Spring Update. The file will also play back in Windows Meida Player 11 on powerful XP and Vista systems.

Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?