Suit Over Faulty Computers Highlights Dell’s Decline

After the math department at the University of Texas noticed some of its Dell computers failing, Dell examined the machines. The company came up with an unusual reason for the computers’ demise: the school had overtaxed the machines by making them perform difficult math calculations.

Tsugufumi Matsumoto/Associated Press

Michael S. Dell, Dell’s founder and chairman, presented the model of computer involved in the lawsuit in 2002.

Dell

Internal documents show Dell shipped at least 11.8 million computers from May 2003 to July 2005 that could fail.

Dell, however, had actually sent the university, in Austin, desktop PCs riddled with faulty electrical components that were leaking chemicals and causing the malfunctions. Dell sold millions of these computers from 2003 to 2005 to major companies like Wal-Mart and Wells Fargo, institutions like the Mayo Clinic and small businesses.

A New Low for Laptop Pricing: $37

There are cheap computers and then there are cheap computers, but $37 might just take the proverbial cake. A persistent eBay listing has just that on offer, with the bargain basement price in question netting you a 7-inch netbook with Wi-Fi running Windows CE.
Don’t plan on editing your next HD blockbuster film or running Crysis on these babies’ underpowered components, but for less than four Alexander Hamiltons you get an actually functional machine running on a 300 MHz ARM processor with 128MB RAM and 2GB storage. You also get a 7-inch screen displaying at 800 x 480 resolution, an ethernet port, two USB ports, an SD slot, Wi-Fi and a 9-volt AC adapter.