[K12OSN] So close....

[Rob Owens]

Oh, I just remembered 2 experiences I had replacing
some Dell hardware.  

1)  I replaced a DVD drive in a 8-month-old desktop. 
I got an NEC drive on newegg.com for much cheaper than
I could have from Dell, and it worked fine.

2)  I replaced a Broadcom onboard wifi card in a Dell
laptop with one that is recognized by Linux.  The
antenna wires were so short on the laptop that they
wouldn't reach my new card.  I had to take apart
*everything* and re-route the wires to make them
reach.  After that it worked fine.

-Rob

--- Calvin Dodge <caldodge at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 11/9/06, Rob Owens <hick518 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Speaking of Dell, I've heard and read (but never
> > experienced it first hand) that some of their
> hardware
> > is only upgradeable with other Dell hardware.
> > Sometimes because of physical size, sometimes
> because
> > the BIOS doesn't allow non-Dell stuff.  Can
> anybody
> > confirm this or give further details?
> >
> 
> Well, I'm aware of two Dell hardware issues.
> 
> The first one is reasonably well-known. Around 1998
> Dell switched
> power lines in their motherboard connectors and
> power supplies. The
> connector looked exactly the same, but if you
> plugged a non-Dell power
> supply in, the typical result was death for the
> power supply and
> motherboard.
> 
> It was thought Dell did this to achieve hardware
> "lock-in", forcing
> people to go to Dell for replacement power supplies.
>  It didn't work,
> since other suppliers (www.pcpowercooling.com, for
> example) came out
> with Dell-compatible supplies.
> 
> The second hardware issue is one which applied to
> one model, but might
> illustrate the sort of mindset at Dell.  A user
> decided to put a
> better soundcard in his Dell, and then found the
> computer wouldn't
> boot up.  Apparently the BIOS needed something from
> the original
> soundcard, or simply required that soundcard to be
> there.
> 
> So, I'd say you can replace RAM in a Dell (IIRC,
> they used to charge
> through the nose for RAM, and might still do so),
> but I don't think
> I'd count on being able to replace anything else
> (you might very well
> be able, but don't bet your life on it).
> 
> 
> While we're having this server discussion, I thought
> I'd throw in a
> plug for ABMX (www.abmx.com).  A customer of mine
> bought a couple of
> 4U _quiet_ Athlon64 servers from them, and has been
> happy with them
> since (they're much quieter than the little Cisco
> router which
> inhabits the same room). I don't know how their
> multi-CPU servers
> compare on pricing, and I don't know if they take
> POs. But I can vouch
> for their reliability and quietude.
> 
> If you buy one, be sure to install FC6 or the latest
> respin of FC5,
> since the original FC5 kernel didn't recognize their
> Intel gigabit
> NICs.
> 
> Calvin
> 
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