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stars
"Latitude 820 Review" on by ucgsb
Pros: very fast great screen
Cons: Motherboard does not use full video ram
Summary: I purchased this on August 17th 2006. I was very excited about this laptop as it supposedly met my perfomrance needs with speed, ram, 7200rpm HDD etc.
When I purchased the DEll 820 with 512mb video, I was specifically told that this was a dedicated 512mb card. Once I get it, I see the bios sees only 256 not 512 or 256 shared only 256 and thats all the motherboard reads.
Dell went through a number of problem solving trials.
Flash the bios
Reinstall video card software.
Claim that Windows overrides Bios and that what the motherboard sees doesn't matter. Backed off when I asked about motherboards that can't handle more than X number of Gigs of Ram or X number of gigs of HDD.
Pressure me into giving explicit descriptions of how performance was affected by only having 256 ram.
Set up tech call.
Cancel tech call, claim that 256mb is shared even though bios can't read it...it is there.
Refuse return, told me I should have read specific documentation about how the motherboards work and the turbo memory. Told me I would need to pay for shiping and 15% restock.
Called Nvidia. Dell 820 is the only motherboard that can not read the additional 256 on the card. There is 256 shared, but the board used may not be able to see the card. LOTS OF COMPLAINTS TO NVIDIA.
Result.... Gave laptop to wife. Bought the remainder of the 15 laptops for the office here at the university from Toshiba. $2,290.00 *15.
Dell does everything to be obtuse and lie. They promised specific performance then treated me like I should know everything about their motherboards...which according to NVIDIA can't even see the ram.Updated
I have been going back and forth will Dell concerning the video card that was sold to me. The card was sold as a 512mb with Turbo Cache. Emails from Nvidia state to me that in fact the card is 256mb with the ability to page 256mb additional and NOT 512mb with the ability to page.
Pasted below is an the log of communication with Dell where there rep admit it is not 512 and can not be 512. The part number from the invoice is 320-4613 512mb Nvidia Quadro 120m Turbo and not what was delivered 256mb Nvidia Quadro 120m Turbo.
I spoke with a supervisor at Gold Care "Bruce" last night who stated that the card is only technically a 512mb.
There is a big difference between being sold a 512mb card that turbocaches and a 256 turbo cache card.
My call to customer care ended witrh them stating they can market anyway they please.
I post this for informational purposes so that others are not tricked the same way I was into paying an upcharge for something that does not exist.
Time Details
02/02/2007 10:58:24PM Session Started with Agent (GTSR Cindy Kent)
02/02/2007 10:58:36PM Agent (GTSR Cindy Kent): "Hi Marc
Welcome to Dell's Gold Technical Support!"
02/02/2007 10:58:46PM Agent (GTSR Cindy Kent): "Please give me a moment to pull up your service tag information"
02/02/2007 10:59:58PM Agent (GTSR Cindy Kent): "Thank you for your patience This Latitude D820 is under warranty until 8-14-2009. How may I help you?"
02/02/2007 11:01:26PM Marc Archambeau: "Still having issues with Video card. When I log on to Dell and have the system identified, it sees only that I have a 256mb video card on this machine. Originally, I was told it wa
- 4 replies to this review
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Hi There,<br><br>If you had checked the specs on DELL website it is clear as day that the video card is shared 256 MB / 256 MB system.<br><br>I've been using a DELL D820 for almost a year now and absolutely love it.<br><br>Yes the video card is not the most powerful one in the world, but you could have chosen better ones if you wanted to pay for it. For Price/Performance this notebook is hard to beat<br><br>I'm running Windows Vista Ultimate edition on it with AERO affects and no problem.<br><br>You cannot play high definition video on it, you cannot play video at the 1920x1200 resolution<br><br>However video playback at 1680x1050 is great<br><br>If you are a serious gamer then this notebook is not for you (unless you like classic games)<br><br>However for business work / programming, basic gaming it is great
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Thank you. I have found Dell to be very vague when trying to get info for a laptop purchase. I will look somewhere else.
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If you had actually read the specifications for the unit you were buying, then you would have seen that turbocache meant that it borrows some of the system memory when necessary. Also, because you have a tiny amount of memory, the board is doing you a favor by not robbing you of what little ram you have to run windows. 512MB of memory is barely enough to turn a PC on anymore. And if you were ever to migrate to Vista, you'd need twice that. <br><br>If someone told you over the phone that the card had 512 dedicated ram, then yes I'd say you have some room to complain. But since you asked the question in the first place, it implies that you had some suspicions about the dedicated memory, so you should have done some additional research. <br><br>Newsflash: Sales people aren't hired to know the product, they're hired to sell the product. Big difference! Do your homework!
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Of all the units they have come out with recently this one comes very close to beating a ThinkPad.<br>Who in thier right mind would buy a DELL laptop in the first place.
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