Re: bad floppies and stuff: a rant

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 10:17:46 GMT, "Bubba"
<datapodtheobvious@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>"John Larkin" <jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:d28gf1hi1lgocstm4gtn5bgtkk1vk2sca0@xxxxxxxxxx
>>I recently bought two new, identical Dell Precision 370 workstations,
>> loaded with goodies, big bucks. Both had intermittent floppies. Their
>> customer service told me (as usual) to back up my registry or maybe
>> reinstall Windows.
>>
>> The problem turned out to be hardware, specifically a rotten
>> mechanical design that obliged the assemblers to install the
>> ultra-cheap floppy drives wrong. It took me many hours to figure this
>> out.
>
>Many hours to diagnose a floppy drive problem? hmmm....
>

The floppies are "bare", just the mechanism, and they depend on the
case to guide the flop into the drive. They are deeply recessed and
the guiding thing barely works... you have to insert the floppy
dead-on straight or it jams going in. There are two green plastic
guides that screw to the side of the floppy, that snap into the bay.
There's allowance for alignment, namely oval slots for the screws. So
if you set the drives back a bit, floppies are hard to load and don't
eject enough to grab without tweezers. So the techs obviously set them
max forward. Now the eject button is pressing on the drive's internal
eject mechanism almost enough to trip it, but plenty enough to angle
the floppy and make the heads walk up/down an incline. This makes the
drives flakey/intermittent. Intermittents are always hard to diagnose.

Hey, I'm an EE and I design electronics systems, and I know sloppy
engineering when I see it. Are you paid to flack for Dell?


>> I can't (after many attempts) get Dell to show any interest in the
>> problem.
>
>I can't imagine why....

I can. Because their support is now Asians reading from scripts, and
there's no script for this.

>
>> It looks like the electronics and cooling in my new Dells is fine, but
>> the mechanical design is garbage. It's very hard to open up and work
>> on, and the drive bay design and cabling is junk.
>
>Hard to open? Those two buttons are rough. I suppose if both hands are busy
>holding the flashlight and looking for your ass....

The clamshell *is* hard to open... the hinges are draggy.. and it only
opens about 45 degrees max, so it's very hard to work on things. The
drive bay wiring is a tangle, so to get a drive in or out, you have to
disconnect the cables to other drives. Bad design. When you close it,
you pretty much have to kick it to get the latches to re-engage.

>
>>Every time I try to
>> insert a floppy (fish around a while, maybe you'll get lucky) or try
>> to remove one (keep the needle-nose pliers handy) it reminds me how
>> much I hate this trash.
>>
>> The black-on-black color scheme is stylish, except that you can't see
>> anything. I had to paint the CD and floppy buttons white, and paint
>> boxes around the USB ports.
>
>Paint the buttons? :-)) you mean once you know where they are you can't find
>them again.
>

I work with lots of different computers. What's wrong with buttons and
USB slots being visible?


>>And why do they bother to use LEDS, when
>> you have to get down on all fours and stick your eye against them to
>> see if they're lit?
>>
>> And the USB memory stick pokes out the front panel such that it's
>> guaranteed to get broken off pretty soon. Two so far.
>
>Clumsy too. So use the ones on the back.

For USB memory sticks? I plug/unplug these every day. Well, I could
have the carpenters cut and frame a nice hole in the back wall of my
office. It's outside, so I'd need an awning, too. Thanks, great ideas.

(that's convenient.) Maybe if they
>were on the side, or the top...
>
>> Dells used to be good, and now they're crap.
>
>Says the guy who needs many hours to diagnose a floppy drive problem, can't
>get a tooless case open, can't perform repetative manual tasks without paint
>and repeatedly breaks off USB drives because they protrude from (gasp) the
>*front* of the case.

Says an engineer who won't let my company buy more Dells.

Sensible people provide one recessed USB slot on the front.

John


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