August 2008 - Direct2Dell

I've said in my past two posts (here's post #1 and here's post #2) and in the comment threads on this topic that I would share more details when I had them. Here's the deal:

Update (April 2009): Apologize for the error. Had to update the links to this post, due to a redirection error. Also, there's a fourth post that outlines what we're doing to work with affected customers. The link for that fourth post about the NVIDIA GPU issue is here.

Dell will offer a 12-month limited warranty enhancement specific to this issue. For all customers worldwide, we plan to add 12 months of coverage for this issue to the existing limited warranty up to 60 months from the date of purchase for the following systems:

Update: Over the last few days, customers like Steve Johnson, John and Robert have asked if their systems are affected. Throughout this process, Dell has undertaken a detailed assessment of this issue.  If your system is not listed in the table above, you do not need to do anything. If you have one of the systems listed above with an NVIDIA graphics card and are experiencing video-related issues I described in the bullet point section of my first post about NVIDIA GPUs, please contact Dell Technical Support.

Details of the service plan will be available in the next few weeks. When I have more details to share, I will do so.

In the meantime, thanks to all of our customers for your patience through this process. We appreciate your business and are committed to serving all of you who are impacted.  

Note from Lionel: Here is a link to the fourth and latest post on the NVIDIA GPU issue. It explains how Dell is supporting our customers who are affected by it.

Back in July, I blogged about BIOS updates for systems that could experience graphics card problems caused by weak die/packaging material set from some NVIDIA mobile GPUs. Since then, lots of customers have commented on our blogs and have asked questions.

Though the actual number of affected laptops is limited, many of you expressed concern for potential problems in the future, and we can understand that. We are committed to serving our customers.  We do intend to offer modified service terms to specifically support all customers worldwide who are affected by this issue. Right now, our teams are working through details. When I have specifics to share about service terms, I will do that here.

Beyond questions about support, lots of Direct2Dell readers like Majortom1981, Carsten and Guiyo have asked if their systems are potentially affected.  

See table below for clarification on this front:

The laptops with hyperlinks in the table above are the ones with updated BIOS versions that modify the fan profile in the system. The above links will take you directly to the BIOS download for that system.  If you own one of the hyperlinked systems in the table, Dell strongly encourages you to update the system BIOS. Please refer to my first post for more information regarding BIOS updates.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post, if you are already experiencing symptoms like multiple images, random characters on the screen, lines on the screen or you have no video signal, updating your system BIOS will not correct them. Please contact Dell Technical Support—here’s how to do that:

• Go to support.dell.com
• Choose your country or region from the drop-down list
• Choose Contact Us
• Choose Technical Support
• Choose Call Technical Support

I know there are many other questions out there. When there are more details to share, I will blog about them here. Until then, thanks for your continued patience. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Today we’re officially unveiling our new line of Latitude laptops to the world. Based on the amount of internal buzz and the volume of work it took to get us here, this is about the biggest product rollout I can remember—besides maybe the launch of the Latitude brand back in 1994 when Dell re-entered the notebook business. Enough with the history… let’s talk new products.

We're introducing seven new Latitude notebooks today—they are the ones we build for business customers. For the entire lineup, our product teams have been focused on designing laptops that can meet a variety of business user needs. If you consider yourself a demanding user who rarely works in an office, take a look at my post over at DigitalNomads.com to better understand what mobility features set these notebooks apart from the competition. 

For notebooks, thin and light is a barrier of entry. Battery life is critically important. So is connectivity.  And these days, design matters more than ever. As we store more of our work on laptops, reliability and data security are also key. Our teams focused on making improvements in all these areas across the product line. Beyond that, we're also introducing new technology options like backlit keyboards, external SATA drive connections, DisplayPort capability; USB PowerShare allows users to charge mobile devices via the Latitude's USB ports even when the system is powered down.

For an overview of the new Latitude notebooks, watch this video from Brett McAnally from our commercial mobility products team:

Here are some examples about what to expect from these new Latitude notebooks:

• Excellent battery life: some system configurations can get up to 19 hours. But it's not just the largest batteries that benefit—we've made improvements on battery life whether you use a 6-cell, 9-cell battery or a battery slice. In this video, Jim Leftwich, the engineering lead behind these new notebooks, offers insight into how we did just that.
• All models offer lots of connectivity options: Wi-Fi (802.11n), several mobile broadband options, WWAN, Ultra-wideband and Bluetooth 2.1. Most are WiMAX ready, and can be ordered with an optional GPS. 
• All kinds of security options: smart card and fingerprint readers, hardware-based disk encryption, contactless smart card technology. Another hardware-based security feature is Dell's ControlVault solution that centralizes user identity key management and storage.
• Centralized control via software—Dell's ControlPoint software allows users to manage battery power, network and connectivity configurations and system security settings all in one place. I'll blog in more detail about it soon.
• In the coming weeks, we will offer color options on the E4200, E4300, E6400 and E6500 in addition to Mica-Brushed Metal Black: Regatta Blue and Regal Red. The E4200 adds Quartz Pink as an option, and the Latitude E5400 and E5500 are available in Matte Black.
• Slick design that doesn't sacrifice functionality: our team focused on balancing a aesthetics with durability and functionality.  Besides the looks, these laptops feature full-frame magnesium alloy construction and all-metal hinges. Take a look at this video where Steve Belt from our engineering team talks about how we tested things like the keyboards and the metal hinges on these laptops.

And for a bit more on the design front, I got a chance to sit down with Eric Bogner, who was one of the design leads for these new Latitudes to ask him a few questions:

Ultra Portable: When portability matters most 

We have two models here, and they will both be available in the coming weeks. The 12" Latitude E4200 (pictured below, note: click on any of the images here to see larger versions) starts at about 2.2 pounds—making it the lightest corporate laptop we've ever built. And besides the color options I mentioned above, the E4200 can also be decked out in Quartz Pink.

And the Latitude E4300 starts at about 3.4 pounds. It's our first Latitude to feature a 13.3-inch inch display.Update: I stand corrected: Direct2Dell reader KMan correctly informed me that his "venerable" Latitude CSx sported a 13.3" display. Thanks for keeping me honest.

It supports options like a contactless smart card and a built-in camera. Both models come standard with backlit LED display to make them smaller and lighter and to give them an edge in battery life. They can also be ordered with a backlit keyboard and next-generation SSD drives.

Another cool option that will be available on both the Latitude E4200 and E4300 in the coming months is something called Dell Latitude ON. It is an application that gives you access to your e-mail, contacts, calendar, attachments and the Internet without the need to boot into the system's main OS. The Dell Latitude ON mode will enable multi-day battery life since it utilizes a dedicated low-voltage sub-processor and operating system. I'll share more specifics on this feature in the future. 

Essential: The features that you need

The Latitude E5400 and the E5500 laptops are designed for customers who want the best value possible in a business laptop. But that doesn't mean we skimp on features: both models support options like fingerprint readers. The Latitude E5400 supports options like mobile broadband and GPS while the larger E5500 offers options like dual pointing devices. The 14.1" E5400 starts at $839 and the 15.4" Latitude E5500 starts at $869.

Mainstream: A balance between top performance, extensive feature set and price 

These two notebooks offer the widest range of battery options and overall features. Bottom line, if you're looking for a feature, either of these laptops probably offer them. These support options like backlit keyboards, LED backlit displays, a battery slice option, a camera or even a 256MB discrete card graphics option. The 15.4" Latitude E6500 provides support for the stringent Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS). The Latitude E6400 starts at $1,139 while the E6500 starts at $1,169.

Besides these Latitudes, today we also unveiled the Latitude E6400 ATG semi-rugged laptop and two mobile mobile workstations:The Dell Precison M2400 and M4400 products. We also introduced a concept 17-in mobile workstation that supports up to 16GB RAM, upcoming quad-core processors, a graphics card with 1GB and up to a terabyte of storage on two hard drives. You can find more information at www.dell.com/nocompromise. I'll blog about all of these products soon.

Stereo mix record capability in sound cards and audio chips is the source of many discussions and much confusion in the blogosphere. A post from Chad Lakkis over at ripten.com a while back sparked some conversations on other sites like Gizmodo and Techdirt.

Truth is that there’s a lot of confusion about this issue. Part of the confusion is that stereo mix is also referred to as different things. People also call it things like "record what you hear" or "waveout mix." Desktop and notebooks equipped with sound cards (or with integrated sound components) generally have a few different ways to record audio:

• through a microphone
• from the line-in port
• stereo mix/ WAVE out

Before I get into the broader discussion about what’s going on, I want to be clear: Dell did not disable stereo mix functionality due to pressure from the Recording Industry Association of America. That speculation is simply not true.

Here’s what happened: there are two ways for stereo mix functionality can be enabled: at the hardware or software level. Long before Vista was here, we supported stereo mix at the hardware level for integrated audio and in desktops. Back during Vista's development, Dell made decisions to remove stereo mix functionality at the hardware level based on Microsoft's initial Vista software requirements. Those requirements were later changed by Microsoft, but too late for Dell to add that functionality back at a hardware level in products nearing launch.

Due to customer feedback, we’ve re-assessed things and have made the decision to enable stereo mix functionality in hardware on new notebooks starting with the Studio 15 and Studio 17 laptops. There will be many other notebooks coming in the future that will support stereo mix at the hardware level. Devices that support stereo mix functionality at hardware level will work with Vista and Windows XP. 

If you want to dig a litte depper into this topic, take a look at these threads on our community forums for more information.

With the launch of 10 new systems – the lightest, most powerful and most energy efficient in our company’s history – we wanted to highlight the Latitude E6400 and E6500 laptops and Precision M2400 and M4400 Workstations as the latest to achieve EPEAT Gold status (the E4200 and E4300 will be listed as EPEAT Gold in the coming weeks). The team has also achieved gold status for the T3400, T5400 and T7400, previously listed as silver.

EPEAT (or the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) helps customers in the public and private sectors compare laptops, desktops and monitors based on a set criteria of environmental attributes (recycled content, elimination of environmentally sensitive materials, corporate environmental policies, and ENERGY STAR standard specifications, among others). Dell was the first to achieve EPEAT Gold for a laptop in 2007 and currently lists 76 systems as Silver or Gold. The success of the tool itself is a reflection of the importance customers are placing on consistent and transparent environmental standards and yardsticks. EPEAT Gold means that the products meet all 23 required criteria plus at least 75 percent of the 28 optional criteria.

With our latest products, we are enabling “green-on-the-go” computing with a few firsts. The newly launched Latitude E4200 is our first ultra-portable laptop to contain halogen-free laminates, chassis plastics and fan housings. The packaging is 99 percent recyclable by weight with 25 percent post-consumer recycled cardboard. We’ve also made a point to incorporate LED backlit displays on several new models.

Additionally, most of our Precision Workstations are designed to meet or exceed Energy Star 4.0. These Precision Workstations are extremely powerful machines, proving that you needn't sacrifice performance for energy efficiency. 

Fifty percent of our laptop models and sixty three percent of our desktop models now meet or exceed Energy Star requirements, avoiding CO2 emissions and driving cost savings for our customers.   

Thanks for helping us shape our environmental efforts. We recognize how important it is to be able to navigate green technology and will continue to support EPEAT and other yardsticks to help simplify the process. As always, please share your thoughts and ideas. You can leave a comment here or visit IdeaStorm or ReGeneration.org. Together, let’s continue to make a world of difference!