Following on from yesterdays post "Dell No Longer Supports Vista x64...and Other Rants", Neowin is happy to report that Dell have responded to our reader Morpheus Phreak blaming the whole issue on a "web site glitch". Lets not forget however that Morpheus had already pointed out to Dell support about their contract obligations to both Microsoft and the Customer to which the Supervisor responded "Our legal team are working on that".
The Windows Logo Program states "OEMs using x64 implementations must have signed drivers available to end users if shipping a 32-bit version of Windows Vista on the system." This applies to [Dell] systems using a Windows Vista logo on the case. They must of come to the conclusion to add back the missing drivers!
The Windows Logo Program states "OEMs using x64 implementations must have signed drivers available to end users if shipping a 32-bit version of Windows Vista on the system." This applies to [Dell] systems using a Windows Vista logo on the case. They must of come to the conclusion to add back the missing drivers!
In a Dell Support representative email response he pledged to restore the missing updates by saying "Dell does provide both 32-bit and 64-bit Vista drivers for the XPS 410. Checking our website it appears that the option for XP and Vista 64 are missing, I can get those added back." he goes on to say "Luckily most of the drivers posted for Vista 32-bit also cover Vista 64. Some of the drivers like the network driver and most of the applications are limited to 32. For those exceptions, the drivers are available on the Resource DVD and you can locate the drivers using the search feature (a difficult procedure at the moment, I’m afraid)." without explaining exactly why it's difficult, he finishes up the email with "Andy and I will work on getting the 64-bit OS selection added back."
It appears after many emails back and forth Dell are finally doing what they are good at, Customer service. God forbid they forget exactly who it is that put them on a pedestal and who can just as easily knock 'em off!
Morpheus had this to say ->
Quote -
Woohoo, Dell has caved.
Chalk up a win for the little guy who wasn't afraid to stand up to the multi-billion dollar corporation.
Chalk up a win for the little guy who wasn't afraid to stand up to the multi-billion dollar corporation.
We like to think that Neowin had a helping hand, thanks everyone for your feedback on the topic yesterday and the subsequent exposure it received on other websites.
Doesn't sound like a web site glitch at all to me lol.
Did you even read the other article?
Either way the drivers are going to be made available again and that's good news.
Doesn't sound like a web site glitch at all to me lol.
Did you even read the other article?
Obviously there's incompetent support representatives who don't know what they were talking about and in the case of the logo program, it would be standard practice to say "the legal team are working on it" if the customer brings up a legal matter since they can't comment.
Doesn't sound like a web site glitch at all to me lol.
Did you even read the other article?
Obviously there's incompetent support representatives who don't know what they were talking about and in the case of the logo program, it would be standard practice to say "the legal team are working on it" if the customer brings up a legal matter since they can't comment.
The person in question wasn't a support representative.
He's a full-time Dell employee who now works as a Community Liason. He's a former engineer and in my experience when he speaks the information he is giving is Dell's direct attitude.
Otherwise why the legal threats when I brought it all up. If he weren't authorized to threaten me legally he would have been fired.
"We did wrong, but we're not going to admit it, and we've told you we're fixing it, and blaming it on something else to make us look better."
As long as it gets the 64 bit drivers back, it's all good
Morpheus Phreak just added to the discussion and wasn't soley responsible for them reactivating the x64 drivers. If you're goingt to give credit then give it to all the Dell customers that were involved.
Again, not front page news IMO
Problems with customer support should be right up our street, especially if companies appear to be violating their own agreements with customers? I don't see what is wrong with reporting that.
Morpheus Phreak just added to the discussion and wasn't soley responsible for them reactivating the x64 drivers. If you're goingt to give credit then give it to all the Dell customers that were involved.
Again, not front page news IMO
There were multiple discussions asking where the drivers had gone to yes.
There however were not multiple people addressing the problem directly with Dell via e-mail and through their official Public Liasons.
It was the decision I made to step it up to the next level that ended up in it being resolved.
Suppose you have a crowd of 30 people grumbling to each other in front of a retail store.
One of those 30 (who started the initial discussion in the first place) steps forward and shouts, "I'm being cheated!"
He shouts it so loud that potential customers start going the other way. He alerts the news media and does an editorial right there in front of their doorstep about how they are cheating the customers.
Who do you think got the job done.
The other group still grumbling to themselves?
Or perhaps the one who yelled and screamed for the attention?
I would give up my legs to hear that conversation!
Dell obviously had made an iNFORMED decision about Vista's overall worth in today's market and in my mind their actions were fully justified.
Well at least this story has done more to highlight the negative of Vista rather than that of Dell themselves.
Dell obviously had made an iNFORMED decision about Vista's overall worth in today's market and in my mind their actions were fully justified.
Well at least this story has done more to highlight the negative of Vista rather than that of Dell themselves.
Your estimation of Vista's worth isn't what matters though.
Vista is here, and if the company that made my computer pulls support for a product they have already sold me there will ALWAYS be hell to pay.
That "fraction" is what Neowin represents though.
That's why bringing this here was my first thought. Tech enthusiasts are the ones to usually suffer the most when it comes to dropped support.
Pip'
I did some looking into that for you Mega, and what I've found is that nVidia has not yet made a single usable mobility driver for Vista.
The only option you have is to get a download of the latest desktop model drivers and mod the files.
http://laptopvideo2go.com/ has some excellent information and tools to make modding the drivers extremely easy
I did some looking into that for you Mega, and what I've found is that nVidia has not yet made a single usable mobility driver for Vista.
The only option you have is to get a download of the latest desktop model drivers and mod the files.
http://laptopvideo2go.com/ has some excellent information and tools to make modding the drivers extremely easy
Hey, thanks. I thought it was odd that I haddn't found anything yet. Have to give it a look see.
x64 Windows is far superior to 32bit, I mean as long as all your applications work, and you can do what you need to do, why not choose x64? I run it, and everything I need works, though I have to admit, Windows DVD Maker doesn't like to support anything other than wmv and mpeg. There are no 64bit codecs for it yet
Just be careful when doing so....a lot of times those codec packs screw up more things than they fix.
That's only if they are uneducated and deserve to be fired. I worked in 2 Call Centers.
One was for a company doing Verizon Customer Support. I didn't work there for very long.
The other job where I was a Supervisor for several years was for a company that had a varied customer base. We handled calls for doctors, tow companies, ISP's, alarm technicians, etc.
I also handled a lot of their IT issues. Any agent who just rushes people off the phones we fired.
Also where in any of my comments did I state that I handled this x64 issues through any sort of phone support?
I've made it clear time and again that this was handled through e-mail and via the forums with Community Liasons. In particular one Community Liason who has worked as an engineer for Dell.
Dell is working hard on getting the support for systems restored.
Part of the problem is that so many systems had the support removed.
(This next part is my opinion)
I think what they are doing at this point is looking at systems.
Figuring out which ones work well with Vista and which do not.
Not that I think this is the right way to resolve it, but it's at least meeting the community half-way.
I'm fairly confident that the Vista logo'ed systems carrying Vista x64 support should all be back up soon.
The XPS 410 already has it's Vista 64 drivers back up, but my wife's Dimension E520 and our A922 Printer do not as of yet.
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