cestuila

clearer warranty regarding LCD, and other things

Laptops submitted by ninjagecko Jul 2

I've seen the screens of many competitors's laptops break down, and sometimes it isn't included in the warranty. For example:

[ begin conversation : ]

student: "Half my LCD screen suddenly died. I did absolutely nothing whatsoever since I cleanly shut my computer down last night."

customer support: "Sorry, that's not covered under warranty. It's accidental damage. You'll have to pay $500."

[ : end conversation ]

I'm afraid of buying laptops now without a very statement in the warranty about what is included in the warranty and what is not. For example is the battery included? (usually not) Is the power strip included? (probably not but it should be)

Personally I firmly believe an LCD screen should be included in the warranty.

I've also heard of cold damage sometimes being a problem; that could in part be addressed with a removable warning label. 5 Comments »

New XPS M1330 9cell battery shape

XPS products submitted by jeopardy Jun 27

The 9cell battery for the XPS M1330 should drop straight down at the back of the notebook, instead of the weird almost "Z" shape it does at the moment.

The M1530 9cell does this.

I am not requesting that the battery be flush with the system - I know it needs to stick out a bit, and personally I prefer the slightly raised angle and improved cooling the 9cell provides. Comment »

Matte (non-glossy) screen option on Studio laptops

Laptops submitted by blomster Jun 26

Please add the OPTION of a matte screen to the new Studio 15 and Studio 17 laptops -- preferably to all of the available resolution and backlight versions. Glossy displays are a deal-breaker for me. 4 Comments »

Train your tech support team about what featurs your BIOS's support.

Service and Support submitted by jmxz Jun 26

Quoting a comment in under a different idea:

I just purchased an XPS M1530... The laptop came wih bios A07 installed. I installed [tried Oracle VM, but the BIOS didn't support the CPU's virtualization feature]. I upgraded to A08. ... I just want t encourage Dell to provide virtualization and mark it's availability clearly. Neither Dell support or the Best Buy Geek Squad could tell me anything about what the bios supported.

C'mon. Tech Support should be able to answer such questions. If a Dell customer who bought one of your XPS's can't answer questions like that, where do you expect them to turn? (my guess: Apple) 1 Comment »

Don't charge up to $50 more to downgrade from Vista to XP

Operating Systems - Multiboot, Desktops and Laptops submitted by jervis961 Jun 17

Dell is going to start charging customers up to $50 to downgrade thier systems operating system from Vista to XP after Wednesday. While some people see XP as an upgrade, I don't think there should be a charge for it. 17 Comments »

Eliminate M1330 heat related failures

XPS products submitted by hkt Jun 18

I'd like to bring to your attention to a design problem with the Dell XPS M1330 with the nVidia 8400 GS option.

1) PROBLEM: The heatpipe exhaust vent blocks up with dust that caused the overheating to repeatedly burnout the GPU thus having the motherboard replaced.

SUGGESTION: Dell support engineers should be made aware to blow clean the heatpipe vents when doing a motherboard replacement to avoid repeated burnouts.

2) PROBLEM: Using a thermal pad to transfer heat from the nVidia GPU to the heatpipe is not efficient enough.

SUGGESTION: I have replaced thermal pad with a copper shim to better transfer the heat. This brought down the GPU core temp. from an idle 65C down to 56C and peak temp of 91C to 71C. Observing this, it is a fairly simple revision to the heatpipe assembly to better mate the GPU to it without the thermal pad. Possibly extending the GPU heatsink further down by 1.5mm and mating it with thermal paste. The spring loaded mechanism can still acommodate for thermal expansion.

I've observed that the M1530 eliminated the issue by not using the thermal pads and directly mating the copper pipe to the GPU.

Thread with contributions from others and myself indicating how to rectify the problem.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=250129&page=9

Reported problems
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=204772 1 Comment »

Sales Chat Staff Should be Informed of Product Launches

Sales Strategies, Service and Support submitted by slateslate Jun 18

I asked a "live sales chat person/avatar" when the Latitude E-Series would be released.

Sales Chat Person didn't know and stated that the sales chat staff don't have that information.

Given that the E-series should be released in the next couple of months, someone should inform the sales chat staff of the approximate date of the release.

As an aside, the E-series looks extremely great. Finally something that gives the Thinkpad a run for its money.

Please don't let the initial batch suffer quality control problems like the M1330 and Inspiron 1420/1520 releases. 2 Comments »

Offer IdeaStormers To R&D Their Own Ideas

IdeaStorm submitted by simon_n Jun 19

IdeaStorm is a fertile breeding ground for ideas that helps foster valuable creativity.
The problem is that lots of the good ideas and the people suggesting them seem to get forgotten about because Dell hasn't got a team for dealing with them.

Dell could offer IdeaStormers the opportunity to research and develop the most popular ideas. 2 Comments »

Laptops power

Laptop Power submitted by y_eilom Jun 21

As D639 user, I find my self use the laptop as desktop for days (when I'm not on the roads).
I think it'll be nice Dell will give us the option to connect/disconnect battery from power without taking the battery out.
By that, we can extend battery life. Comment »

HHO Fuel Cell ... Develop One Please!

Environment, New Product Ideas submitted by aikiwolfie Jun 22

HHO fuel cells are the future. Unless you have been living in a cave in Afghanistan you will have noticed YouTube is full of videos demonstrating this technology. Now choosing to avoid the nutters that are more likely to blow themselves and you along with them to kingdom come, I've choose a slightly more reputable video to get the message across.

So how green are Dells green credentials? Do you have the bottle to get really serious about green IT technologies? 26 Comments »

Phone-come-Laptop

New Product Ideas, Laptops submitted by simon_n Jun 23

In the advent of multi core processors for PDAs (see link below) how about a phone that expands/contracts to the size of a laptop? (http://www.propeller.com/viewstory/2008/02/22/readius-cell-phone-with-e-paper...) 1 Comment »

Text is going over the page

IdeaStorm submitted by badblood Jun 23

the text in some comments is going over the page ins some ideas...

Can Salesfarce.com fix this problem! Are they up to the challenge? 4 Comments »

Make the Dell E a model 'Green Computer'

Environment submitted by badblood Jun 24

Can Dell make the 'Dell E' from recycled plastics, can it avoid many of the nasty metals and chemicals that go into making bad computers. Can Dell package the Dell E in less materials, will that material be recycled..?

Can Dell certify that the Dell E is a Green computer? 1 Comment »

Beta Tester

Desktops and Laptops submitted by derricktwo Jun 24

I would personally be interested in participating in this, if it’s open to the public. I’ve been working with Dell’s for over 8 years now, and have disassembled and reassembled over a dozen laptops and more than double that amount of desktops. All back to working condition. Some for repair, and (because I am a geek and former E.E. major.) some for fun. (Not to kiss up) but Dell’s are my favorite computers and the one I recommend 98% of the time. I am asked a lot in this line of work. (assistant I.T. Manager) I would love to assist in the creation of Dell’s next great thing. 10 Comments »

Produce a laptop that can be used on a lap

New Product Ideas, Laptops submitted by oligarch Jun 24

Laptops have grown to be unuseable comfortably on a lap due to heat, screen position and keyboard ergonomics. I would like to retain the power of current offerings to handle video, computation and average games, but to be light and easily useable without a tray/cooler and to still have a good screen size (say 15" or so).
As power efficiency gains are always used up by more powerful processors and more complex software I do not expect power consumption to be massively less than today's average Inspiron or Latitude, so the cooling system needs to be redesigned so the base is insulated from the lap and cooling air is directed away from the body.
The screen should be mounted securely but it should be possible to raise the viewing height using some sort of cantilever mechanism. Alternatively it could be dismounted to place on a coffee table and again elevated using the same mechanism and communicate with a wireless or other means.
One possible design could use a touch screen in the base replacing the need for a keyboard. allowing use with or without the other screen.
It could be sold wth or without the demountable screen and could also be used with a much larger separate wireless monitor and /ro wireless media server. Comment »

"Dell E" Find a new name for your new computer...

Advertising and Marketing submitted by badblood Jun 13

Dell's upcoming netbook ultaramobile thing is apparently going to be called the 'Dell E' which sounds like Deli, where you can buy milk, bread and other nice things.

Please think of another name. Have a naming competition on Ideastorm.

I vote for the Dell Lite as in delight!



'Delle" in german means "dent" 35 Comments »

Dell E Slim with NON-glossy panel

Monitors and Displays submitted by happymaster23 Jun 15

I have falled in love to new Dell E lineup and Dell E Slim specially. This product looks superb, with no badness, but I found one - this is glossy panel. I hate glossy panels, so Dell please make customization selection between glossy or non-glossy.

Thank you 8 Comments »

Fix "My Systems & Peripherals" website

Dell Web Site submitted by audiofree Jun 11

The idea behind “My system and Peripherals” is a nice one. You get to add all your service tags in one place and the site keeps track of things like when your warrantee is up etc. This is very nice if you’re tracking 20+ items.

About 3 months ago dell “Upgraded” the website making it almost useless in the process. The first big problem is when your sort by “Contract Expiration Date” it’s not sorting by numbers. IE rather then showing

11 Days
105 days
127 Day

They show
105 days
11 Days
127 Day

How dumb is that? Because 105 is before 11 if you’re sorting as text. Rooky mistake can’t believe it’s been 3 months and they haven’t fixed it.

Next useful feature they removed from the upgraded page is the ability to extend your service contract. Before you could check on an item and “View Purchase options” and it would show you how much it would cost to upgraded the warrantee for 1 year or 2 years etc.. now that has been taken away, and you have to call in and hope you can work your way though the Dell phone maze to find someone that will give you the info and take the order.

I have no idea why dell would have taken a useful part of their website and messed it up so badly on an “Update”. Yes they put in some new fancy things but man took out the one real useful part and left in such a bad bug in sorting I can’t believe they haven’t fixed it.

In short. Fix the bugs. And allow us to extend our warrantees over the web like we used to. We hate calling. Comment »

Portable battery charger

Laptop Power submitted by cazyray Jun 9

Can we get a portable battery charger. I have two batteries I switch back and forth and I always have to charge in the laptop. I know Gateway used to have one about 5-6 years ago but some how the idea died there?? 5 Comments »

The preliminary ship date in Europe and the options who can delay the shipment date

Dell Web Site, Service and Support submitted by mdevoucoux Jun 10

On the US DELL website, you can see the preliminary Date shipment, depending of the options you have choosen. In Europe, it's impossible to see this information.

http://images2.photomania.com/515306/1/radF905D.jpg



Please DELL, can you add this function on the French and European DELL websites ? 2 Comments »