gHacks technology news » dell http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:33:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Dell Releases Bios Updates For Several Nvidia Video Cards http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/30/dell-releases-bios-updates-for-several-nvidia-video-cards/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/30/dell-releases-bios-updates-for-several-nvidia-video-cards/#comments Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:44:38 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=5433 Dell has released a Nvidia GPU (Graphics Processing Units) Bios Update for several Dell notebooks on their Dell Direct website. Nvidia confirmed earlier this month that some notebook GPUs were affected caused by a weak die packaging material set.

The GPU may fail due to temperature fluctuations and users may experience symptoms like random characters or lines on the screen. The problem is that if customers experience those symptoms the Bios update will not help them anymore and they have to contact Dell support to fix the issue.

Everyone else should check the website to see if their Dell notebook is in the list and update the Bios of its GPU accordingly. The affected notebooks according to Dell are:

  • Inspiron 1420
  • Latitude D630
  • Latitude D630c
  • Dell Precision M2300
  • Vostro Notebook 1310
  • Vostro Notebook 1400
  • Vostro Notebook 1510
  • Vostro Notebook 1710
  • XPS M1330
  • XPS M1530

The Bios update will turn on the GPU fan more frequently at half or quarter speed to reduce temperature fluctuations. Dell confirmed once again that this will have no noticeable effect on battery life. New notebooks will be shipped with the updated Bios.

The real question however is which GPUs are affected but there does not seem to be a direct answer for this. There is however the list of Nividia GPUs that have been used in the affected Dell notebooks, here it is:

  • 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS
  • 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS (64 bit)
  • 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
  • 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GS (128 bit)
  • 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
  • 128MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 135M
  • NVIDIA Quadro FX 360M 256MB TurboCache (128MB dedicated)

My suggestion would be to check your notebook, even if it is not from Dell, to find out if a video card from the list has been used to build it. If that is the case contact the hardware manufacturer to find out how he handles the problem.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/07/30/dell-releases-bios-updates-for-several-nvidia-video-cards/feed/ 1 Dell to finally ship PCs with Linux http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/01/dell-to-finally-ship-pcs-with-linux/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/01/dell-to-finally-ship-pcs-with-linux/#comments Tue, 01 May 2007 07:57:14 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/01/dell-to-finally-ship-pcs-with-linux/ First Dell PCs with AMD chips and now Dell PCs with Linux preinstalled. It seems that Dell finally managed to see that giving its customers a choice is the way to go in this matter. Linux has some advantages over PCs that ship with Windows Vista or Microsoft Windows XP. The first and most prominent one is of course the price tag. Dell can reduce the costs that customers have to pay for a PC even further and advertise this properly.According to DesktopLinux.com Dell will offer Ubuntu Linux on a Dell e-series “Essential” Dimension desktop, an XPS desktop, and an e-series Inspiron laptop.

ubuntu logo There has not been an official announcement so far on the Ubuntu or Dell homepage but this is surely going to follow in the upcoming days. This is a great step in the right direction for the Linux community to bring Linux more in the focus of the mainstream media.

Dell on the other hand will receive lots of publicity as well which could surely drive more traffic and sales to their website. It remains to be seen how many users will actually purchase Linux instead of Windows with their Dell systems. One advantage of buying a complete PC with Linux is that all components should work flawlessly with the operating system.

Most average users will probably not recognize a bit difference between Ubuntu and Windows but they surely will be more secure with Linux. This is of course only helpful if you do not intend to play games because you will surely be disappointed. Don’t tell me that new users should use Wine to play them. I think Dell will only supply those notebooks and computers with Linux that are non-gaming PCs.

Do you think that this is a good strategic move by Dell and also good for Ubuntu Linux ?

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/05/01/dell-to-finally-ship-pcs-with-linux/feed/ 5 Get rid of preinstalled Software http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/27/get-rid-of-preinstalled-software/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/27/get-rid-of-preinstalled-software/#comments Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:24:50 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/27/get-rid-of-preinstalled-software/ Did you ever buy a new computer from manufacturers like Dell, HP or Sony ? If you did you know that those computers come loaded with a bunch of preinstalled software products that are normally not very useful and use valuable disk space. One option would be to uninstall one product after the other until you have every last one of them removed from your new computer.

A much faster method would be to use the so-called PC DE-Crapifier to uninstall most of not all of them in one go. Starting the software simply displays a list of products that is currently installed on your computer. This is not the uninstallation dialog that you see when you select it from your control panel. PC DE-Crapifier only scans the system for known products that are preinstalled when buying a new computer.

You may select to remove none, some or all of the programs that are found during the scan. This ensures that you can keep all the programs that sound interesting or have been installed on purpose. The list of programs that PC DE-Crapifier supports is a long one, here we go:

  • QuickBooks Trial
  • NetZero Installers
  • Earthlink Setup Files
  • Corel Photo Album 6
  • Tiscali Internet
  • Wanadoo Europe Installer
  • Get High Speed Internet!
  • Internet Service Offers Launcher
  • Dell Search Assistant
  • Norton Ghost 10.0
  • Symantec Live Update
  • MS Plus Photo Story 2LE
  • MS Plus Digital Media Installer
  • McAffee
  • Norton Internet Security
  • Google Desktop
  • AOL US
  • AOL UK
  • MusicMatch Jukebox
  • MusicMatch Music Services
  • Wild Tangent Games
  • Norton AntiVirus 2005
  • Norton Security Center
  • Norton AntiSpam
  • PC-cillin Internet Security 12
  • Run Registry Entries
  • Desktop Icons
  • Corel WordPerfect
  • Roxio RecordNow
  • Sonic DLA
  • Sonic Update Manager
  • Sonic RecordNow Audio
  • Sonic RecordNow Copy
  • Roxio MyDVD LE
  • Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
  • Quicken 2006

As you can see a lot of programs. Please note that some of the listed programs are so called light versions that do not offer the functionality of the full priced product. Others can be trial versions that you can only use for a certain time with the option to buy them if you want to continue using them.

I’d say this is pretty useful if you want a fast efficient solution.

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