Pictured above is the new Dell Optiplex 960 in the Desktop form factor my initial reaction isn’t 100% positive. My first thought was it looked like a 1970’s VCR.

Next up we have a front facing shot of the Tower, Desktop and Small Desktop.

For sure this is a bold design move but from these shots the contrast between the black and silver facia just doesn’t work for me. My first thought was “the front grill looks like a cheese grater”.

I would have taken some of design ideas from the Dell XPS 420 and hid the optical drives behind a front facing facia that folds out.

This shot of the Tower from the side is the only one I think makes the Optiplex look good.

The Dell Optiplex range now consists of the 960,760 and 360. It would appear only the 960’s have this new design.

To me this just looks like two design styles that have been smashed together.

The Optiplex is a great general purpose office computer and thankfully that audience typically doesn’t care about aesthetics as the computer is most often chosen for them by corporate I.T.

Official Optiplex 960 Product Link:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/desktop-optiplex-960?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd

I have a Dell Optiplex GX755 that I use for testing operating systems.

This particular machine would not let me re-install Windows XP Pro. The factory installed version had installed fine, but when I came to re-install it failed. Specifically on a blue screen of death STOP 0×0000007b.

So out of curiosity I tried to install Windows Vista SP1 and the same thing happened.

Next I try Windows Server 2008 and that installed perfectly.

So why the problem of with Windows XP / Vista?

I am sure it has something to do with the on-board Intel Matrix Storage Manager acting as a RAID controller.

What worked for me:-

In the Bios go to Drives > SATA Operation

You have 3 Choices

AHCI This is the default but causes the STOP 0×0000007b

ATA (This works) or Legacy (This works)

So I choose either ATA or Legacy and I can install Windows.

I did notice one difference between this Dell Optiplex GX755 and another that was working perfectly in this regard.

In the bios under the SATA identifier in my case SATA-0 in the Drive details section under BIOS it says “This drive is controlled by the AHCI Bios” on the problem one it says “This drive is controlled by the Raid Bios”.

So the correct way to re-install Windows would be to supply the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (OS Pre-Install Driver Only) package. During your Windows Install by Pressing F6 to load these. The prerequisite is your machine has a Floppy Disk drive.

This is a problem as Floppy Disk’s are now not common on new hardware.

This means you have to create a slip streamed install CD with the Matrix drivers installed. This is something outside of the scope of what a normal user should be expected to do.

In my case changing the SATA operation from AHCI doesn’t seem to cause any problems. Windows installed correctly and is working fine.

Microsoft has shipped out Windows Vista Business Install DVD’s with integrated SP1.

This means I can bypass having to install Vista then having to install  SP1 on top.

So now I can build my test rig. I am going create a typical business system and see how many real world issues I encounter.

The test machine consists of a Dell Optiplex GX 755 with:-

Installed I have

Windows Vista Business SP1
Office 2007 Professional (patched to Office 2007 SP1)
Both them have the most recent updates applied.
Cute PDF (for printing PDF’s)
Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.2
Nod32 Business Edition Anti-Virus
Winzip 9.0

I will be joining this to a Windows Small Business Server 2003 network.

Notes

Tech Tip: The install process was smooth. After Vista was installed on the Optiplex GX 755 I only needed to install the Audio Driver, Video Driver and the Chipset (note in my case there were 3 install packages offered on support.dell.com and I needed to install all 3 to get all my hardware identified).

I must say with a clean SP1 install the machine does feel robust.

My daily experience of Windows Vista is on a laptop that was:-

Windows Vista Business >
Upgraded to Vista Ultimate >
Add in 130+ Windows Updates over time 14 months >
Upgrade to Windows Vista SP1

I don’t think it will be much longer before I reformat the laptop and re install Windows Vista Business SP1.

So now the real test begins. The Optiplex machine I have build is exactly how I would deploy in the real world. Lets see how it does.

Bookmark the link below for future Windows Vista SP1 news

Link: View all posts filed under Windows Vista SP1

Dell are running a trial: They are using Dell Technical Support personnel to offer additional products and services to end users.

I take a dim view of this. As a Dell reseller I am under near constant attack from Dell contacting clients directly and altering their perceptions about technology offerings.

At this juncture Dell and I disagree about what product ranges my clients should be using.

Dell direct market my Clients Dell Vostro. I on the other hand recommend Dell Optiplex/Latitude.

So you can see why this latest approach is unwelcome to say the least.

Related Links

Link: http://consumerist.com/343132/is-dells-tech-support-staff-trying-to-sell-you-things-yet

Dell Respond: Tech Support Selling- What’s Going On-

I let my clients run their hardware for as long as they want. Sometimes this is a good idea, sometimes not.

I find that laptops last for a good 3 years, desktops can go even longer.

But one of my clients had a clicky, clicky noise coming from their vintage Dell Optiplex that shipped in 2001.

Now clicky, clicky noises are bad, but then so  is any unusual noise coming from a hard disk and should be taken as a warning of impending failure.

I replaced the user’s PC and took the old hard disk back to try and recover some of the users data.

In this case I wasn’t successful, the damage was too far gone. This was very disappointing as usually I have a good success rate with data recovery.

I basically take the bad hard disk and connect it in as a second drive in a working PC. I then boot Windows XP from the first hard disk and mount the fault faulty drive from inside windows.

So in a parting note: Remember to back up as bad things do happen.