Latitude General Harware failure rates?

Hello Ted,

According to PC Mag's 17th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey, Dell is rated "below average" in regards to reliablity. In addition to this and your experience, my year and a half with my Latittude D600 experienced a new mobo, 4 power adapters, new battery's(main and bay), and a new keyboard amongst other things.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1626487,00.asp

Thanks for the replies.  I did bring this issue up with our account rep.  He did say that there have been many improvements to Reliabiltiy and Durability with the D-series Notebooks.  He sent a powerpoint presentation that detailed all the changes.  I don't think I can post it here, but I'll just paste some of the highlights. 

We have mostly C640s right now and only a handful of D-models.  I don't recall any repairs on the D models yet.  Hopefully, all this stuff is true and not marketing hype.

 Latitude Durability & Reliability:

ToughTri-Metal™ Chassis – the strength of magnesium, aluminum and steel in a lightweight package that delivers enhanced rigidity and improved protection for sensitive internal components.

StrikeZone™shock absorber  shock absorber protects the hard drive – and your data – from the rough reality of mobility, whether the system is on or off.

Dell’s torture test ensures that our notebooks have already been subjected to conditions worse than they will likely encounter in everyday use. Dell has an entire building dedicated to ensuring quality.

Latitude Stability

Extended product lifecycles and proactively managed product transitions help minimize costs and headaches.

System changes and updates will never be a surprise thanks to Dell ImageWatch™, which helps ensure that you are notified months before changes happen.

The Latitude Family’s shared peripherals mean greater flexibility between users’ systems and fewer parts to stock and replace when refreshing to newer systems within the family.

Consistent configurations worldwide to simplify global deployment and management.

Download of Altiris Local Recovery™ at no additional cost, which allows users to create local backup images, incrementally back up data and recover data with a single keystroke

Latitude Usability

Latitude D-Family notebooks boast nearly 200 electrical and mechanical improvements based on direct customer feedback.

Exceptional battery life provides enough power to keep you working on long flights.

ExpressCharge™ allows you to recharge batteries in about an hour, so you can make the most of even short charging opportunities.

Dell QuickSet™ software makes it easy to customize your power settings for travel or presentations with a single mouse click.

Dell offers a wide range of docking solutions, including the D-View stand, which can be used to raise your screen to eye level or to work as a dual display in conjunction with an existing monitor.

 

 

 

Message Edited by PretzelDude on 01-17-2005 10:04 AM

Here's some more that I missed:

D-Family  Design Improvement Highlights

  Electrical and DFx Improvements (87 enhancements from C to D)

                       PCBA improvements

                       LCD flex to coaxial cabling

                       Cursor signal improvement (gold contacts and digital signal)

                       Integrated graphics (graphics down)

                       

           Mechanical Improvements (81 enhancements from C to D)

                      Chassis Plastics to Magnesium Framing

                       LCD cover bracket and visor             

                       Keyboard support

                       Module latches

                       LCD Bumpers

                                   

           Interconnects

                       Tin to Gold Plating

                       Analog to Digital Signaling

                       Added keyed feature on all connectors

                       LCD locking cable

 

We just replaced another motherboard on a C640 two days ago too!  No problems yet with the few D600s that we're starting to get.

i had my c640 in bits for a week ... thaught put the thing on ebay buy a new system and it booted ! has run fine for 3 days not a problem at all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what is going on !!!!!!!!! it eventually did same ran few mins and shuts down wont restart maybe runs few secs and then wont even start like original prob a week ago

i did a full diagnostic with the cd supplied all tests passed no faults found .. has to be a simple thing dell has to know what is causing this or do they want us to buy a new laptop seen heaps of simular probs on this site and on ebay selling them ..with runs few mins then shuts down ..ect

the plot thickens lol :D

has anyone fixed their c640 ?????????????????????????????????????????????????
:) ??????????

My firm has 188 X300's and the system boards suffer from a high fialure rate due to the USB ports shorting out (unable to handle the load from powered USB deivces such as PDA's and Smartphones), DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drives are unable to read DVD-R media, even though Dell's documentation and their sales and tech peopel all state that it can. In the process of having close to 300 drives replaced as soon as Dell finds one that will read DVD-R media. The included softwware for burning media (Easy CD Creator 5) does not play well with DVD media, Dell will be replacing that as well. D600 problems, same combo drive problems, hard drive failures, due to bent pins on the drives (shipped direct from factory like this), starting to see system board failures now, as they are unable to recognize an installed battery, USB port problem when connect to a D/Dock (port replicator) no USB device plucgged into the dock is seen by Windows. Dell quality is getting worse, if you had asked this 6 months ago, I would have said buy IBM, but with IBM sellin goff their PC manufacturing division, about the only ones I'd recommend are Toshiba and Compaq now. Unless money is no object, then Alienware or Voodoo.

and don't forget fujitsu. Had I known all the problems I'd be getting with my D600 I would of bought a fujitsu.

Hi i have my new motherboard now and am using the i8kfanGUI fan control ..downloaded from the inspiron site it works fine in the c640 :) have set mine to keep it at 50 deg celsius it does run hotter when on the 2.4gig but at half speed it runs cool and keeps hard drive cooler also :D NOTE the new laptops like d600 run slower cpu speeds ?!?!? is dell aware of the temperature killing the hdd,cpu and motherboards ?
so to test this run a laptop at the slower speed by going to my computer,control panel ,power options and set it to portable laptop ....it will then run at 1.2ghz and only run at higher when doing lots of work ,,my fans are set to keep the cpu at 50deg celsius which keeps motherboard and hard drive cool
makes it noisier :D but keeps it cool and makes it last longer :)
now thats a good thing :P



oh the cpu max temperature is rated at 50 deg celsius ?!?!?!?!?!? i read on an internet page //?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?:%

Message Edited by gerardvg on 03-24-2005 03:25 PM