Dell claims Latitude E4300 glitches 'fixed'

Technical issue now resolved, we're told

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

27th May 2009 15:51 GMT

Dell is on a collision course with some disgruntled customers after it insisted problems with a components shortage in the vendor's Latitude E4300 models had now been resolved.

The computer maker added the issues with the laptop, which was hit by lengthy shipping delays of up to three months in January, had been fixed and that customers who had ordered the E4300 model could expect delivery soon.

"Dell recently experienced delays in shipping the Latitude 4300 through a technical issue," a company spokesman told The Register.

"This problem has now been resolved and we are experiencing standard lead times, in terms of the amount of time it takes from the time of order to delivery. As always, we encourage any customers having issues with their systems to contact Dell directly for assistance."

However, the firm, once again, remained tight-lipped on what technical glitch it has been experiencing when manufacturing the laptop.

Separate sources have told us that the faulty component could only be fixed by replacing the entire motherboard.

"The E series has been quite a challenge as they are already in the 11th revision of their BIOS for the E6X00 series due to a good number of problems," one anonymous tipster told El Reg.

Senior notebook contracts manager at the University of London, Mike Kilner, told us just last week that the uni had been hit hard by the delays to Dell's shipments.

"Never mind the delays, that buried forum link with a proposed BIOS fix at the time has developed into full blown major motherboard surgery required for the Dell E4300 across nine pages (130 replies) and counting," he said.

"Customers at some sites appear to find it easier to tally up the machines that work than don't out of their total E4300 pool."

He said that one faulty machine was looked at twice by a Dell engineer who replaced every component on the laptop, with the exception of the memory, and still couldn't get the machine to work.

"This one could run and run. Which is more than can be said for their present range of expensive paperweights," said Kilner.

However, Dell continues to insist that the manufacturing glitch has been dealt with. It also declined to comment on what component caused the shipping delay to its Latitude E4300 laptop. ®