Dell Has Identifed Axim Slowdown - Working On Fix

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-1026579.html?tag=fd_top">http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-1026579.html?tag=fd_top</a><br /><br />"Dell Computer said Wednesday it has identified a software glitch inside its Axim handheld and will not ship new units until it corrects the problem. The Round Rock, Texas, company said that Axim X5 models--its first and only handheld--running Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC contain a software glitch that reduces their performance on many applications."<br /><br />The problem has been traced to Dell software within the Axim 2003 package. It is not an issue within Windows Mobile for 2003 itself. They are planning on offering the fix to existing owners via software download or CD-ROM. They have not provided an estimated delivery date.

[Excalliber]

Now everyone say sorry to poor falsely accused MS :lol: :wink:

[149125198]

ummm.. that was my 'first ever to be published' :roll: 0X news item on PPCT ( I just reported to PPCT Team)...but thanks though for posting it on the web page. :)

[Janak Parekh]

ummm.. that was my 'first ever to be published' :roll: 0X news item on PPCT ( I just reported to PPCT Team)...but thanks though for posting it on the web page. :)
We appreciate your submission, although Ed was writing up the post already as you had emailed it. ;) Don't worry, if you keep on submitting news you'll get ones credited to you.

Back ontopic: I'm glad to see Dell has acknowledged it. Seeing as how they seemed to have suspend shipments, I'm sure we'll be seeing the fix very, very soon.

--janak

[Ed Hansberry]

ummm.. that was my 'first ever to be published' :roll: 0X news item on PPCT ( I just reported to PPCT Team)...but thanks though for posting it on the web page. :)
Keep submitting. Whoever did it right at 10:00pm gets the credit, but they didn't fill any identifying info. Your's came in at about 10:03 with 3-4 others. :D

[joshuajg]

Seeing as how they seemed to have suspend shipments, I'm sure we'll be seeing the fix very, very soon.

--janak

I ordered an Axim Monday and it is on it's way to me and should be in my hands tomorrow.

Take care,
Joshua

[delfuhd]

I'd just like to say Kudos to Dell for actually doing this, and creating a solution. Imagine if Toshiba had this kind of problem? This makes me feel all nice and warm and fuzzy inside after hearing about Toshiba's and HP's customer upgrade problems..

[Christian]

I'd just like to say Kudos to Dell for actually doing this, and creating a solution. Imagine if Toshiba had this kind of problem? This makes me feel all nice and warm and fuzzy inside after hearing about Toshiba's and HP's customer upgrade problems..

I agree. Its really encouraging to see such a prompt and positive reaction by Dell. :!:

[Newsboy]

...after hearing about Toshiba's and HP's customer upgrade problems..

Don't feel bad for us Toshiba and HP customers! (I have one of each!) We don't think of them as bugs or glitches, since they tell us they're product enhancements, or we just pretend the problems don't exist! Besides, with a 50 minute battery life on my Audiovox Maestro, I don't get to use it long enough to find anything to complain about! :grumble:

[Christian]

Don't feel bad for us Toshiba and HP customers! (I have one of each!) We don't think of them as bugs or glitches, since they tell us they're product enhancements, or we just pretend the problems don't exist! Besides, with a 50 minute battery life on my Audiovox Maestro, I don't get to use it long enough to find anything to complain about! :grumble:

This sounds a lot like how my late e740 worked... It had one unique feature in particular that caused automatic and unattended hard resets on a regular basis, so as to prevent the installation of too many potentially incompatible programs. Such as Toshiba's own updates. :lol:

[Foo Fighter]

Thank God. I had my mouse clicky finger hovering over the "Cancel Order" button on Dell's web site in anticipation of this announcement. Now all is right with the world. Birds are singing...flowers are blooming...the sun is shining...some drunk guy is peeing at my doorstep. HEY! 8O :wink:

[RickP in AZ]

Whew... Now I can get back to nagging my wife about letting me ditch my iPAQ 3975 and ordering the Axim.

Between the release of "MissingSync for Pocket PC" and this little news blurb, I am having a really great day today. Woohoo!

[mr_Ray]

Not meaning to come across as too much of a spoilsport, but you really should check out Dell's very own support forums before suggesting that Dell put out a prompt and positive reaction. Even now, Dell technical support are STILL denying that there's a problem when you phone them. Just yesterday (or was it the day before, I forget) the forum moderator turned up and acted all innocent claiming to never have heard anything about it. Just like every tech support person in the company apart from one. We've been pointing the problem out to Dell long long before they "found" it themselves.

Is it a coincidence that they only very grudgingly admitted to being at fault once the media got involved?
Check out all of the customer experiences at Dell Axim Software (http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=aximgensw) and
Dell Axim Hardware (http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=dellpda)

Not wanting to Dell-bash, but anyone is free to disagree with me after reading all the nightmares on the two above groups. :D

(Don't even get me started on my own exeperiences with them. lol)

[dh]

No question, it took Dell a long time to come clean and admit the problem. I assume they wanted to maintain thier sales and shipments until such time as they had a plan together on how to fix things.

At least they have come into the open with it now and I suspect a fix will be available very quickly.

As has been pointed out already, it could have been worse, we could have been Tosh owners.

[GoldKey]

Wasn't it just yesterday they had a press release denying any problem whatsoever?

[tccox]

I ordered the 2003 update for my Axim while it was still avaliable. Until yesterday order status showed on hold. As of today hold has been removed and shows est delivery date of July 28. I wish the folks who have complained so much about the way Dell has handled this whou have gon throught what I have with Ford and my Windstar and Dodge and my daughters Neon. Dell has been great.

[PetiteFlower]

What the company says officially and what the idiot tech support people know are clearly 2 different things. Especially because most of them are in a totally different company. They really need to communicate better with their tech support people, but either way I think we can go by what the press release says.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

Wasn't it just yesterday they had a press release denying any problem whatsoever?

On Monday, the CNet story stated that Dell had not gotten any reports of the slowdown problem from their technical helpdesk resources. Although I think highly of Dell, I think that was a sneaky wording that didn't exactly deny the problem...

KCT

[hudsonmobile]

I ordered the 2003 update for my Axim while it was still avaliable. Until yesterday order status showed on hold. As of today hold has been removed and shows est delivery date of July 28. I wish the folks who have complained so much about the way Dell has handled this whou have gon throught what I have with Ford and my Windstar and Dodge and my daughters Neon. Dell has been great.

I agree -- when compared against most other consumer product manufacturers, Dell's response here came basically 3.5 weeks after the launch of WM2003 -- and, at the end of the day, the slowdown isn't that severe a problem for most users -- imagine if the unit had been released with a faulty battery or button. I imagine that a software fix will be posted soon, and that will be the end of this little fiasco. I mean, if MS gets to release "Service Packs" for every product they make, shouldn't Dell get to do one occasionally as well? :wink:

[mr_Ray]

I agree -- when compared against most other consumer product manufacturers, Dell's response here came basically 3.5 weeks after the launch of WM2003 -- and, at the end of the day, the slowdown isn't that severe a problem for most users -- imagine if the unit had been released with a faulty battery or button. I imagine that a software fix will be posted soon, and that will be the end of this little fiasco. I mean, if MS gets to release "Service Packs" for every product they make, shouldn't Dell get to do one occasionally as well? :wink:

Possibly true, but even Microsoft have the spherical objects of manliness to admit that there's a problem, and don't outright lie to everyone about it. We're used to "There's a problem and MS are working on it" and "MS have just released a patch for XXX", but we never hear of "MS outright refuse to admit that there's a problem with product X despite every copy of it being blatantly faulty".

Guess which of the above applies to Dell here? :wink:

[Foo Fighter]

Wasn't it just yesterday they had a press release denying any problem whatsoever?

Dell hired the former Iraqi Information Minister to give that press release. Ignore it. :wink:

[blueshirt80]

I think Dell did the right thing. They didn't annouce a problem as part of the OS or as part of there hardware and software package. They waited until they have finished testing and diagnosing the problem before they pushed blame on someone or something else. Good for them. It would of been really easy for them to blame Microsoft and do nothing.

[Christian]

Not meaning to come across as too much of a spoilsport, but you really should check out Dell's very own support forums before suggesting that Dell put out a prompt and positive reaction. Even now, Dell technical support are STILL denying that there's a problem when you phone them. Just yesterday (or was it the day before, I forget) the forum moderator turned up and acted all innocent claiming to never have heard anything about it. Just like every tech support person in the company apart from one. We've been pointing the problem out to Dell long long before they "found" it themselves.

Is it a coincidence that they only very grudgingly admitted to being at fault once the media got involved?
Check out all of the customer experiences at Dell Axim Software (http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=aximgensw) and
Dell Axim Hardware (http://delltalk.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=dellpda)

Not wanting to Dell-bash, but anyone is free to disagree with me after reading all the nightmares on the two above groups. :D

(Don't even get me started on my own exeperiences with them. lol)

Perhaps I spoke too soon - since I'm not an Axim owner myself I hadn't read up on all of the details. Perhaps its more an issue of the handheld industry having set such low standards. Nevertheless, I maintain that the fact that Dell is fixing this problem at all, and that it is doing so in a matter of weeks after the initial release; that shows much better customer support than what I am used to from my previous PocketPCs.

[mac]

One thing bugs me the most - why didn't they notice the performance issue BEFORE they ship?

Any self-respecting QA department would've managed to red flag this, don't you think?

I wonder if it's some silly business decision thing to go ahead and ship... until they were overwhelmed by customer complaints....

[Janak Parekh]

One thing bugs me the most - why didn't they notice the performance issue BEFORE they ship?
You wonder that about a lot of things. How about the dust on the original iPAQs, for example?

In this case, we don't know enough facts to make a conclusion, though. It's possible that a last-minute changed triggered a problem, and that slipped through QA. Still upsetting, but not surprising given the speed of today's industry.

--janak

[Bankerdave]

I just checked my Windows Mobile Software 2003 for Pocket PC order, at Dell's website. It still shows, "In production". It was suppose to ship by the 29th of July. I suppose that will be backed up due to the software fix that they are working on. That's OK though. I'd rather have a working Axim, or at least one that I can down load a service pack for and fix it, rather than be stuck with an upgrade that would drive me nuts with it's performance issues.

I still think Dell is doing a good thing by attempting to fix things so quickly, even if it did take pressure from the media to get it done. :)

[Howard2k]

Good that they're doing the right thing and correcting it. I have to admit to being impressed with Dell's prompt ROM releases. Dealing with their personnel I've had nothing but hassle. But at least they're doing something right.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Any self-respecting QA department would've managed to red flag this, don't you think?

AS a software tester - I think that they may have been over-ridden. :| It does happen a lot these days unfortunately. You would not believe what management tries to release sometimes. I had one manufacturer make changes and ship the product without further testing AFTER I had signed off the 'final' code. 8O

Still, as long as the Axim fix happen I'll be happy. I'm still waiting to hard restet and start again with the firmware and PPC2003 updates todether however.....

[shawnc]

I KNEW IT! I knew my Dell was running slow but couldn't figure out why. I didn't want to post a question because every time I thought about it I couldn't begin to describe it or answer the questions I anticipated would be asked. Kudo's to Ed (and whoever else found this). My Axim has gotten so slow that I basically use it to look up phone numbers and play music. Maybe when Dell releases the fix I can get back to getting my $400 worth out of this equipment.

[Janak Parekh]

I KNEW IT! I knew my Dell was running slow but couldn't figure out why.
Shawn - are you running PPC2k2 or 2k3? This only refers to the problem with the ROM update. I believe you bought yours back in the 2k2 days, in which case it's more likely a misbehaving app. Try a soft, and then perhaps a hard reset first and see if that helps.

(Hopefully, the "fixed" version of 2k3 will bring a nice speed boost to the Axim, anyway, though.)

--janak

[shawnc]

Janak,

You can't blame me for trying. Thought about doing a hard reset (have tried a soft one many times) but since I have the 2003 update on order, I figured I would wait until it arrived and hopefully it would solve whatever issue I am having.

Thanx,