August 1, 2007
Rick Shafer, Technician
Rix Computer Magic
(my address)
541-738-0282

Michael S. Dell, Board Chair, and
Kevin B. Rollins, President & CEO
Dell Inc.
One Dell Way
Round Rock, TX 78682

Dear Mr. Dell and Mr. Rollins,

I am an independent computer technician in Corvallis, Oregon; I work on computers of all kinds for home and business users in my area.  I am writing about a very serious problem with Dell Dimension desktop computers.  I hope you take this issue as seriously as I do, and I hope to hear from you or your staff about this.

The new design that you are using in BTX-based desktop computers is seriously flawed.  The air does not flow around the memory correctly, the memory overheats and becomes damaged, corrupted data is written to system files, and the computer becomes unusable.  This is happening in Oregon summer weather (cooler than Texas), in houses without air conditioning.

I have seen this problem occur on two Dell Dimension E310s in the last couple months.  Although this model has been discontinued, you are still selling computers with exactly the same design flaw:  the Dimension 9200 and the Dimension E520.  I looked at pictures of the computers on your website; they have exactly the same problem.

Here is the problem – and you can refer to the attached pictures from your website for reference:  More air is being forced into the case than is being forced out of the case.  Horizontally along the middle of the computer, from the front to about halfway back, is a large and long shroud containing a heavy-duty fan.  This fan provides almost all the airflow for the whole computer.  (There is probably also a small fan in the power supply.)

The fan is capable of forcing large amounts of air into the case, but this is not in keeping with desktop computer design principles.  It is critical to pump more air into the computer than out.* 

In these computers, air is pumped in and not out.  Further, no air can even be expected to flow over the memory.  Air is pumped over the processor, and the shroud assembly keeps the air moving right past the RAM.  The principal place air can escape is out the back, though some may escape out the front grill.  Air that escapes out the front grill may cool the RAM a little bit, but not very much.

One result of overheating memory is a lot of grief.  A computer with bad memory will do crazy things.  The corruption in the filesystem and in system files can be so insidious that there is no way, as far as I know, to fix it without reinstalling Windows. 

With these computers, the only way I’ve found to make them work for more than a couple weeks in hot weather is by replacing the memory, reinstalling Windows, and having my customer set the computer up with its case side off and a household fan pointing directly at the memory.  Obviously this is not a good solution.
* * *
It seems to me that this is a very serious problem, and worthy of the attention of both the CEO and the Chairman of the Board.  This particular design is an experiment using your paying customers as subjects – and the experiment is not going well.  These computers are turning into bricks. 

BTX is a new design, which re-arranges the motherboard and case components in an effort to improve CPU cooling.  I do not have an opinion on BTX computers in general, because I’ve seen so few.  I have never built a BTX computer. 

This implementation of BTX is a disaster, and it is important that you take steps to fix this serious problem with a recall.

Your company’s reputation depends on how you handle situations like this.  Already, Dell has mass-marketed a product that self-destructs.  I have no idea how many of these computers you’ve sold, but I imagine it must be a good number.

What can you do to help solve the problem?  First, you can immediately stop shipping this type of computer.  There is no use compounding the problem.

Second, I would urge you to recall the computers.  I have no idea how much that would cost – probably a large sum of money – but those are the kinds of expenditures that you have to make to prove to your customers that you are running a first-class and dependable company.

I urge you to be proactive about this.  Releasing these models of computers seems to have been a big mistake, and I encourage you to take action to remedy the situation as quickly and comprehensively as possible.

I understand that you are both busy men and may not have time to talk to me directly.  But I encourage you to look at this material carefully and have your staff contact me and ask technical questions about the problems I’ve seen. 

I endeavor to be helpful about this.  I don’t want to have to tell my customers that there’s nothing I can do to fix their Dell properly.  Fixing Dells is a very important part of my business, and I need the product to be fixable.

Every computer sold has an implied warranty of merchantability.  This means it must be capable of doing what it is sold to do.  I don’t think these computers meet that standard.

Sincerely,

Rick Shafer, Technician
Rix Computer Magic

The Dimension 9200:

The Dimension E520:

These computers were both for sale on dell.com on Saturday, July 28, 2007, and both have the same design flaw I have recently seen in two Dimension E310 computers sold in 2006.  The memory is located directly above the processor fan shroud, which guides all the air in.  There is just no way for a serious amount of air to flow around the memory.  I tried installing a fan in the back, but it didn’t help.