Best dell bug ever
or is it a feature :-)
 Rickard Liljeberg
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Wellington, New Zealand
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Jun 08, 2006 - 23:50:44
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Chris here at work just found this cool bug on all our Dell Optiplex GX520. It was so cool in fact that we decided to capture a video and post it online.
The bug appears when you put your mobile phone close to the cd-rom unit of the dell and then recieve a sms/txt. What happends is it goes into some sort of suspension mode from which you can't bring it back without breaking power or holding down the power button for four seconds. It worked with all the new dells here in the office and with any mobile phone. Just make sure to save all of your work before you try it at home. The only remaining question is: Is it a bug or feature? Not trying to make money, just curious if people actually click ----------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------- Update: I can see from my google analytics that this is still popular and finding it's way around the world one city at a time. If anyone else has tried this i'd enjoying knowing the results... just flick me an email from the contact page form (you can be anonymous) Update 2: This is now static content. Over 86000 visitors had my hosting complain over database load and who can blame them. Personally I think Surftown.se is worth a round of applause for how well they took the onslaught as well as how nice and helpfull they have been in resolving the problem. Update 3: The amount of visitors is back down to bareable volumes again so this is no dynamic again. |
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Comments - 32
Andrey K
Rickard L
Then it would defenitaly be a feature not a bug.
Erik K
Rickard L
Jesper T
Rickard L
I guess when you publish as much text as me online you're bound to screw up every once in a while.
Rickard L
Their network location is: Dell Computer Corporation
I think that is funny :-)
Maybe I should start looking out for those men in black now.
Very funny this bug !
Jeff .
Looks like there are some long-ish 12v wires from the power supply that plug into the motherboard right under the cd bay. The wires are probably acting as antennas and picking up the rf from the phones. It's a feature (not a bug) because the board is protecting itself from over/under voltages and noise.
Leonard I
I re-blogged it:
http://www.iozzi.net/2006/07/best-dell-bug-ever.html
buzz k
julio a
Steve P
Needless to say, not a healthy running condition for the monitor. Maybe this is a protection circuit to keep the monitor frequency in check.
Pooter I
Steve P, the problem is not the monitor. If you look closely, you can see the power LED on the box shutting down and blinking like the pc is in sleep mode.
I cannot replicate the problem either here in the US. same monitor (well, same looking since i do not know the model you are using)
I agree with Jeff. it could very well be RF causing noise so the board is going into "OMG I'm Gonna die" mode.
It could also be the frequency of your power as well. If i'm not mistaken, standard house power here in the USA is 110v 60Hz Isnt New Zealand running more in the range of 120v AC @ 50Hz? Wonder if the frequency is being affected by the frequency of the cell signal coming in to that phone. just sort of thinking outloud guys.
mark e
motoralla phone , I I noticed my laptop crashing
only when I was at work (but it was fine at home. then I realised my (dell) laptop was only crashing right after my phone receved a text message. It didn't crash everytime I recived a page but frequently. I kept the phone farther away from my pc.. and no crashed.... I put it back and it started crahing again... no one would believe me :)
Tim W
New Zealand power is 240 volts AC at 50Hz as opposed to America's (I think) 110 @ 60Hz. At 110V, you need a little more than twice the amperes to produce the same number of watts (remembering that W=VA). I agree with the theory that something is protecting itself against the inductance from the phone's signal - I also suspect this will only work with GSM cellphones (in NZ, that's Voda not Telecom) and that it's probably more likely to be the power supply causing the cutout. Try put the phone near the machine's PSU!
Ujang J
Moral:
To get a batter sleep at home; “Do not bring your cellphone into server room mixed / full with Dell machine.”
Anony M
It can hang a computer what is it doing to my brians?
Rickard Å
http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/200607/29/20060729182117_PFA/20060729182117_PFA.dbp.asp
Rickard L
This can now be found on digg (front page) and the register for those who dont know.
I will try with the psu as suggested as soon as I have a moment to spare.
Rickard L
One guy forgot to fill in return address so I couldnt reply.
So here is the public answer instead... he asked about which phone it was.
The phone on the video is a standard Nokia 6230 (pretty old now).
But it has happened all over the office with various phones on our GX520's
ichan k
ferdian a
Ben M
Rickard L
"I work in a BPO center in the Philippines. Actually we saw this problem in our GX520 (small form factor) since December 2005 and as a result, cell phones were banned in the production floor.
The supplier isolated the issue to the power supply. They are slowly replacing all the power supplies. Strangely enough, a subsequent delivery had the same issue.
Probably the problem is unique to GSM phones, but the Philippines is the SMS capital of the world!"
So maybe PSU is the thing, and that would explain why only some batches are affected.
Phil M
We did get some great results with a T-Mobile MDA (aka o2 xda mini) which sent the graphics on the LCD crazy - going to try an replicate this particular fault when we have the video camera up & running !.
Phil,
Edinburgh.
Josh S
Greg N
If anyone from Dell reads this then in my entire experience dealing with your company only 1 engineer has actually thought outside of the box and he went the extra mile to solve this. His name is Neil Lithgow so if anyone from HP wants to poach Dell's best customer focussed technicial person then you have his name.
We found the problem unrelated to the provider and in most cases unrelated to the handset as well. Handsets that killed the machines were Sony K700i, K750i & W800i. Nokia N70 and some SPV C500 & C600's also were enough.
My original plea for help to the world is here: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=oplex_other&message.id=22440&query.id=74856#M22440
You can find the offending PSU Part#'s and the new PSU Part#'s you need to resolve things.
Good luck all!
Cheers,
Greg
Devin D
DrK C
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lolhaha
RavenX
RavenX ~ Deland Florida (Near Daytone Beach)