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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (154750)	3/9/2000 2:24:00 PM
From: phbolton	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Filed at 2:02 p.m. EST By The Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Dell Computer Corp. is warning the owners of as many as 400,000 notebook computers that their machines may contain defective memory chips. The problem -- involving Latitude and Inspiron computers shipped between Feb. 1 and Nov. 20, 1999 -- was discovered after Dell got a string of customer reports of computers freezing up and losing or damaging data. The Round Rock-based computer maker said that for customers who have a faulty machine, it will ship new memory chips overnight, or owners can send their notebooks back to Dell for a free memory replacement. Dell shipped about 1.3 million Latitude and Inspiron portables last year. About 400,000 of them, or 48 percent, were shipped during the period the defective memory was installed, Dell spokesman Rob Crawley said Thursday. Memory chips from other manufacturers were also used from February to November, so not every unit sold at that time will be affected, he said. The company won't know exactly how many are affected until all of the units have been checked, Crawley said. Dell is notifying customers by letter and in person. Crawley said customers should use a diagnostic diskette sent with the letter or download the program from Dell's Web site to test their notebooks. Dell is the nation's No. 1 personal computer maker, with $25.3 billion in revenue over the past four quarters. As for the cost of fixing the problem, ``it's a nit to Dell in terms of any impact to Dell's bottom line,' Crawley said. The affected models include the Latitude CPiA, CPiR, CPt, CPx and CS and Inspiron 3500, 3700, 7000 and 7500.