I have a customer with a High Spec Dell Latitude D620 with the highest level of next business day on-site Warranty including Accidental Damage cover.

Last week the laptop refused to boot up at all, nothing on the screen. So there was very little in the way of trouble shooting that could be carried out.

So I contacted Del Technical Support for the end user and after a short time Dell agreed to replace the motherboard and committed an engineer to come to site.

The day before the on-site visit was to take place the end user was contacted and was told that Dell did not have a replacement motherboard and the end user would re-contact when one was available.

However no commitment was made in relation to time scales.

The now very unhappy end user contacted me, stranded computer less with no idea when the issue would be resolved by Dell.

Although this client did not any maintenance or support agreement directly with me I offered him a loan laptop until this issue is resolved. If Dell can’t help my end users then I will.

The parts delay at Dell was explained to me by Dell’s Mark Alexander as being down to Nvidia. This Latitude D620 had an Nvidia based video card and there is well documented problems with these (see here).

I was rather disturbed as during the conversation with Mark as I got the impression that these older Nvidia based laptop’s were dropping like flies, hence the lack of available parts.

During this process the case was professionally handled by Mark and as I previously discovered Next business day warranty is subject to Dell having available parts.

As it stands the laptop is still Dead.

The customer isn’t particularly happy and I am down a loan laptop.

Picture: Dell Diagnostics Error (sorry about the pic quality)

If you are the lucky recipient of a new Dell PC or Laptop there is something installed in the bios called the Pre Assessment Tool as well as a full set of Dell Diagnostics.

You can access both of these by pressing F12 when you see the Dell logo.

The Pre Assessment Tool does a battery of tests, the most important of these being a Memory test.

The Pre Assessment tool can take up to half an hour to run but its well worth spending the time up front ensuring  you wont be wasting more time later.

If something important fails in the Pre Assessment Tool for example Memory contact Dell Technical Support.

Once the Pre Assessment Tool has completed successfully you can boot into the Dell Diagnostics or reboot and carry on installing your Operating System.

Its not that I don’t trust Dell, but I personally run the  Pre Assessment Tool on every single new machine that passes through my hands.

Normally I would be in an uproar about this. However it appears Dell themselves are being affected by the global currency crisis.

This doesn’t leave them many options apart from to put the prices up across the board apart from the Latitude XT which is actually cheaper but is due to be replaced in the product line.

As a supplier of Dell Technology to small business this is yet another unwelcome blow. 

November 10th 2008 Prices

January 30th 2009 Prices

Today I figured I would give the “My Downloads” a shot. This allows you to put your driver downloads in a basket for a single download.

So I gather my downloads.

Then go to download the lot and I get.

This is like going to Amazon.co.uk and being told I have too much in my basket

To put this into perspective last week I downloaded 2 Windows 7 ISO’s that were 6gb in size. But Dell a company that actually makes web servers can only give me 250mb chunks.

The 250mb limit of the Dell My Downloads is pretty pointless.

Its even worse if you think about it.

I would have to start adding up each file size for download in my head until I get to the magical 250mb. Then do it in two batches.

Dell should at least announce the 250mb limitation either before or during adding downloads so a user wont be wasting their time.

To use the Internet par lance of the day – Epic Fail

The Dell Limerick staff have all been told to attend a meeting at 10am this morning (08/01/2009).

Michael Dell will be present over a Video Link.

The speculation ranges from significant job cuts to the closure of the manufacturing plant entirely (Dell could possibly move the operations to Lodz, Poland).

Limerick is a town of 70,00, The plant directly employs 3,000 people with many thousands of other local jobs that rely on Dell in the community from companies like Banta, IEC, Sercom and Iretex.

The Limerick plant was the biggest Dell plant outside of the USA and according to the Times accounts for 5% of Irish GDP.

I would be really disappointed to see Dell pull out of Ireland. So fingers crossed for the staff.

You can follow this story here:

Link: http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=uk&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1287404179

Update 10:30am: 1900 or 63% of Jobs are to go and Manufacturing moves to Poland. A sad day for the people of Limerick and my thoughts are with the good people of Dell who lost their jobs.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7817487.stm

I guess the Dell XPS M1330’s Days are numbered if the above picture of the new Dell Studio XPS 13 is anything to go by.

Something I don’t get is the co-branding of the Dell Studio range and the XPS range.

Studio = Creative Types & XPS= Gamer/Performance why bash these brands together?

Anyway back to the Studio XPS 13… The keyboard is very Apple macbook like and unlike any current shipping Dell.

I do like the styling but anything black and shiny is a finger print magnet.

The XPS M1330 was very popular (aside from issues with Nvida based video cards) so I imagine this revision is going to sell well.

But wait….

Dell are apparently working on a consumer laptop that for thinness will rival Apple’s macbook air.

So if you’re waiting to get a new swishy laptop it may be worth waiting just that little bit longer.

Understanding the difference between these two SSD options is something Dell hasn’t  been overly forthcoming with. They told us the Ultra Performance was fast on the Direct2Dell blog but its still not really clear for a consumer which option is best.

Well if Dell won’t tell you then I will.

First Performance:

The Dell Ultra Performance wins hands down. The average transfer rate is far superior.

Screen1: The Dell Mobility MLC Version

Screen2: The Dell Ultra Performance SLC Version

MLC/SLC

MLC= Multi Level Cell (See Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_cell)

MLC is generally seen as a slower SSD technology and one potentially prone to reliability issues and shorter lifespan.

SLC = Single Level Cell (See Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-level_cell)

SLC is the faster and more robust of the SSD technologies.

Notes:

So there are two things to consider when choosing that Dell SSD option

1) Performance

The performance of the Cheaper MLC based SSD is still excellent compared to traditional laptop hard disks. For example the MLC SSD has faster performance than my own Desktop PC’s hard disk. So its slow compared to the Ultra Performance SLC but it still delivers on the performance front.

Its a bit like comparing a BMW to a Porsche both are nice but the SLC has the performance edge.

The Samsungs in these tests are both "*slow* compared to latest Intel’s X-25M technology that is about to hit in Europe. So performance should be seen in relative terms. It’s great but there is always something faster around the corner.

Q) MLC/SLC Can you feel the difference in everyday use.

A) Not as much as you would think.

2) Reliability

Q) Should you be worried if you have a MLC based SSD?

A) No, the MLC’s lifespan will far outlive the machine it came in.

Conclusion

Basically the Ultra Performance (SLC) wins on both Performance and Reliability but comes at that increased cost which is currently £317+VAT for the same 64gb capacity.

I personally would not let all this MLC/SLC stuff worry you too much. If MLC technology was so bad it would not be commercially available in machines with 3 year warranties.

Test Bed

I used two identical but separate Dell Latitude E4200’s with Clean installs of Windows XP Pro SP3. The only difference in the machines were the SSD’s being tested.

Important: The names “Dell Mobility” and “Dell Flash Ultra Performance” allow Dell to use any SSD from any manufacturer and call them that.

In my case Dell supplied 2 Samsung models as time goes on Dell could very well change the brand of SSD being used. So don’t assume its always going to be Samsung.

—

I have also written about SSD here

Today Dell launched their 2nd netbook the Dell Inspiron Mini 12.

It comes with a 12.1” WXGA screen, 1gb Ram, 80gig PATA hard disk and sells for £429 inc VAT and Delivery.

The display is 1280×800 which is great for a 12” display.

It has 3 USB, 10/100 Networking, VGA out, 3 in 1 Media Card reader and wireless/bluetooth etc.

The operating system is Windows Vista Home Basic the 80 gig PATA drive runs at 4200 rpm.

At £100 less this would be a steal and give the other netbooks a run for their money. But I am even debating if this is netbook or just a entry level laptop.

A few of the negatives are: Single Core Cpu, 3 Cell battery, Vista is the operating system, I don’t see any mention of WWAN either and collect and return warranty is your only option.

Some of the peer reviews of this might make for interesting reading.

Link: Inspiron Mini 12

Every time I use Dell Technical support I write up my experience both good and bad. Hopefully this will help potential customers of Dell’s equipment get a feeling for the aftercare that is on offer.

In this case I had a remote customer who’s Dell Optiplex GX620 died in it’s 2nd year but had 3 years on-site warranty.

So the call was placed to Dell Technical Support on Monday 10th and as the PC was dead there was little in the way of diagnostic work to do, so the call was booked to send an engineer to site on Tuesday.

The engineer arrived at 5pm on Tuesday but one of his parts was dead on arrival so the call had to be aborted.

On Wednesday the company that Dell outsource their hardware warranty to called me. This is a company called Banctec. They said that due to a parts shortage the anticipated a repair would be about another  3 days.

I asked who was responsible for having access to the parts and Banctec said Dell.

So I contacted my old Dell Resolution manager and asked him to get someone to help and he forwarded my request onto a chap who did get involved.

I was told again due to the parts shortage that the part was due in by the end of business next Monday a full 7 days after the original call was made. This was very annoying so I started quoting the Next Business Day terms and conditions and my Dell Resolution Manager quickly pointed me to the “Subject to parts availability”. See main picture, yes he did include it in an e-mail to me in a big picture.

Link to the PDF version of the Dell Next Business Day Terms:

So I guess I’ve lost this one, I can’t fight for my customers rights if the T&C’s cover Dell for this.

However I can highlight a few salient facts.

1) Dell sent an engineer to site with Dead on Arrival Parts. If you read the T&C’s closely (Page 4) you will see they are allowed to replace with reconditioned or refurbished parts.  Not exactly confidence inspiring is it?

2) Dell did not have access to more than 1 Dell Optiplex GX620 Motherboard. This model was a mainstream and popular business model. The new motherboard is coming from Holland apparently, hence the delay.

3) As you can see from their T&C’s Dell don’t really have to fix your problem in a fixed time frame.

For me this completely destroys my faith in the whole concept of Dell’s Next Business Day Warranty and with a customer base of 250 Dell Users who sleep peacefully thinking Dell won’t leave them hanging for a week. I guess they will be pretty disappointed too.

I’ve been dealing with Dell for over a decade and not once have parts availability been an issue.

Texas I think we have a problem…

After what appears to be a troubled European launch I managed to get my hands on a Dell Latitude E4200. Dell’s lightest business laptop.

The unit came with the following specification:-

Intel Dual Core 1.4 Ghz CPU (SU9400 800Mhz FSB and 3mb Cache)
2 Gig of Ram (800Mhz DDR3 Dual Channel)
64gb Ultra High Performance Solid State Drive SSD
External DVD+RW
6 Cell Battery
Windows Vista Business SP1 to XP Pro SP3 Downgrade

Innovations: Storage

I avoided the first generation of SSD hard disk technology due to the cost and performance issues. However you can order the E4200 with Samsung’s latest ultra performance 2nd generation technology.

SSD technology is about to take off in a big way now it can deliver high performance and low power consumption. It would appear Intel is about to steal the march on Samsung and have some amazing SSD technology in the intel X25-M SSD’s.

However the 64gb Ultra High Performance Solid State Drive SSD from Samsung is no slouch.

Innovations: Power

I cannot tell you how impressed I am  with Dell for finally re-designing their power bricks.

It’s small, light and doesn’t get too hot. One word excellent.

Innovation: Form Factor

If you have ever used a Latitude D400, D410, D420 or D430 the compact form factor should come as no surprise. I’ve used everyone of those models over the years and yet the E4200 takes it one stage further. Its ultra compact, light and has performance to die for.

Pictured above is a E4200 sitting on a Dell XPS M1530 hopefully this demonstrates just how small the E4200 is.

Optical Drives

The E4200 can be ordered with an External DVD+RW drive. These have been re-designed to make them smaller and lighter than before. I for one hardly ever use an optical drive anymore I either download what I need or copy files  over a network or some other form of storage.

However having the eSata driven optical drive does come in handy for installing operating systems etc. Although it initially appears awkward having a separate optical drive this is overall the best solution to keep the weight of the laptop down. The unit is powered off the laptop.

Battery

One compromise you sometimes have to make with ultra compact laptops is battery life. I could have ordered a 4 cell battery that would fit flush to the back of the design however when it comes to mobility power capacity is more important that aesthetics.

So I chose the 6 Cell battery that would appear to be capable of keeping me working online for 4+ hours. It does stick out the back about 1” but the additional battery life is worth the trade off.

I did a quick test and played back a test mpeg 2 video file (DVD Quality) stored locally and it played back for 3h25m before the battery died. This is a good stress test as it involved lots of SSD activity as well as video and sound.

Operating Systems

Although mine shipped with a pre-installed Windows XP SP3 I decided to install Vista Business SP1 and Then XP again so If deploy any E4200’s in the field there are no surprises in Operating System deployment.

Now with the relatively small capacity of 64GB the size of the Operating System footprint is worth looking at.

Windows XP Pro SP3 took up 6.81gb Leaving 52.6gb

Windows Vista Business SP1 took up 14.9gb Leaving 44.5GB Free

Average Boot Times

Windows XP Pro SP3: 44 Seconds for a fully loaded desktop connected to a wireless network.

Windows Vista Business SP1: 53 Seconds for a fully loaded desktop connected to a wireless network.

Windows Vista Performance Index Dell Latitude E4200 3.2

As you can see outside of graphics the E4200 does perform well.

I do plan to use Windows XP as my main operating system but I have to say the Windows Vista user experience was really rather nice. and I was impressed at the boot time and overall performance.

Installing a Clean OS

It was easier to re-install Vista than XP due to some unrecognised hardware in XP that took some detective to sort out. See here.

Build Quality and Observations

This looks pretty good, the USB sockets are a bit tight to begin with but over time will be fine.

The screen has a matt finish i.e. not glossy the viewing angles take a bit of getting used to but for the user sitting in front of it, it’s fine.

The Keyboard is excellent but the track pad mouse buttons feel plasticy.

Fan: This does kick in from time to time and is neither too noisy or obtrusive.

Heat: Compared to other small form factor laptops from Dell in the past I was pleasantly surprised by the E4200 not once did it become uncomfortable.

SSD: First of all you do notice an immediate speed improvement and the lack of traditional hard disk noise is welcome. So my first impression of Ultra High Performance Solid State is very positive.

Performance: Even from the couple of days of use I can tell the E4200 is going to be very capable on the performance front. I was initially concerned that the low speed of the Dual 1.4Ghz cpu’s would be an issue however the rapid speed of the SSD’s  keep the system responsive at all times.

Cost

The Dell Latitude E4200 was launched in the UK in September 2008 with a base price of £899+VAT. In early November the entry level base price rose by £130 to £1029. The main difference was Dell now no longer offer 32GB SSD hard disk so the consumer has to pay the difference for the higher capacity 64GB SSD the entry level Dell Mobility version.

At the time of writing Dell only offer the E4200 with SSD technology.

As you can see there is a steep, steep price increase if you want to go the performance SSD route.

One interesting question to answer is how much of a difference is there between the:-

64gb Dell Mobility and the 64gb Dell Ultra Performance SSD’s and now that both are out in the wild in the same machine I am sure this will come to light.

Value for Money?

The costs of a non tablet Dell business laptop ranges between £409 and £1029.

So this puts the Latitude E4200 at the top of the range. Unlike the previous D4.x range from Dell the E4200 has been priced in a class of its own with a base price in excess of £1000+VAT and the performance model coming it at £1436+VAT The E4200 is unlikely to become the mainstream choice. For that you’re looking at the 14.1” Latitude E6400.

E4200 Pro’s / Con’s

Pro’s

Small and Light
High Performance
Excellent 6 Cell Battery Life
Redesigned Power Brick
Ultra Performance SSD is impressive

Con’s

Only 2 USB sockets
Expensive

Conclusion

The E4200 lives up to my expectations of a compact yet powerful laptop. It’s a tad expensive but what you get especially with the performance version at least is something quite special.

Links: Official Dell Product Page / Dell Latitude E4200 Spec Sheet PDF

Bookmark the link below for future E4200 coverage:

http://www.colindiponio.com/category/dell-latitude-e4200/

If you have any questions about the Dell Latitude E4200 then please use the comments or e-mail me directly.