Tell me about it. I was intermittently losing connectivity with a docsis 1.1 modem that was giving me 4+ mbit most of the time. The tech I called recommended I get a Docsis 3 modem so I did. I no longer have connectivity issues so it was a good call by the tech but I'm still seeing 2.x to 4.x mbit downloads and getting 0.3 Mbit uploads at best.

I called back after getting the new modem to get it provisioned, then called the next day after running speedtests. They said I should expect closer to 7mbit down instead of the 2 to 4 I'm getting but DOCSIS 3 would hit my area in the next few weeks taking the advertised to 12 Mbit down. So if I'm getting half the advertised speed I'll still see my download speed double if all they do is bond 2 channels for me.

The Summary is misleading but the problem didn't end in 2005.

Replacement parts were just as faulty as the original parts and continued to be shipped to customers at least 4 years after they started selling new PCs with those parts and a least a year or two after warranties expired. Worse for people that didn't have warranty coverage and paid hundreds of dollars for a replacement motherboard. It's bad enough when you get your replacement part for "free" and it works worse than what you had before, it's even worse when you pay hundreds of dollars for a replacement part that doesn't work properly.

Now you can talk about how stupid it is to buy a replacement motherboard from Dell when a new PC is only a few dollars more but we are talking about businesses here. Full of stupid procedures that waste money on a regular basis.

I'll add to the trivia here by mentioning the there is a revision of the GX270 that has the same motherboard as a revision of the GX280. I wouldn't know except I worked for a corporation that had hundreds of PCs in the GX260, GX270, GX280 models and management made the bad decision of replacing all motherboards "proactively" (the catch being this was a reactionary way of going proactive, any other time I'd ask them to be proactive they'd avoid it). So we literally sent away working motherboards with no observed issue only to receive replacement motherboards with even worse bad caps on them and got into situations where Dell had already taken away the good motherboard couldn't replace the bad replacement motherboard due to shortage of parts.

I'm at a different company now but even here we have a handful of those bad cap Dells in daily use. If we keep up the pace of PC replacements the last of the 2005 bad caps PCs will be replaced here some time in 2011. I wouldn't have to assume there are millions of these junky PCs still in use in businesses of all sizes, homes, churches, and schools across the US. Think about how many companies provide PCs for telecommuting or donate PCs to schools/churches/employees. These things are like the PC equivalent of a cockroach.

On top of calling pay phone numbers (900 numbers and such) if it copies all your data to a server somewhere you may go over your data plan and have to pay $15 per 200MB transferred or $10 per 1GB transferred depending on your plan.

Well it's obvious you have never used Volume Shadow Copy because in the windows world there is no practical difference between a partition and a volume. No I'm not joking, no I'm not being a Troll.

Find a Windows server with a single drive (basic disk) and a raid Array (Dynamic Disk)
Right Click on My Computer and choose Manage
Click on disk management
right click on a unallocated portion of a "basic disk" to "create a new partition"
right click on a unallocated portion of a "dynamic disk" to "create a new volume"
Give them both drive letters
Go to the properties for each volume/partition and marvel at how you can turn Volume Shadow Copies on for a Volume and a Partition.

OMG, Microsoft doesn't care if it's a volume or a partition. Oh well, at least it works like the end user would want it to in this case.

Yes Windows uses the terminology differently than hard core linux users do but unless you understand how Windows labels things saying something like "You cant do this in windows either, not with partitions." makes you sound like you don't know what you are talking about to anyone that has seen the process it actually takes to manage disks on a windows server.

You left something out. I didn't say 640GB = 596.13GB, what I said was

BOX.....Windows
640GB = 596.13GB

as in the Box says 640GB and Windows says 596.13GB

I didn't put an i in the GB after 596.13 because Windows doesn't put an i in GB. As important as the i in GiB is Windows doesn't put it there so the comparison for an average user is

640GB = 596.13GB not
640GB = 596.13GiB

Windows just doesn't use the labeling you want it to use.

Oh and as to 596.05, not 596.13 you are again stuck on math not a real world example. I told you I was using the example of the WD6400AAKS. So I didn't do math. I simply looked at what Windows told me the size was. When will you understand it isn't about the math it's about the difference between what the consumer is told it will be before he buys it vs what Windows tells him it is after he starts using it?

You can argue about GiB and 596.05 all you want but that won't change what it says in Windows when I go to look at disk management. In the default view the drive shows as 596.13 GB Online. If I get properties and go the Volumes tab the capacity is listed as 610438 MB. Again don't bother telling me how many MiB it should be from 640GB to MiB. Windows doesn't label it that way and we are dealing with an actual drive not just arbitrary math.