So the motherboard is replaced, the bottom right USB works… and guess what, the audio just croaked! Go freakin’ figure. There’s audio on the headphone jack, but last week the speaker sound just went south. BTW, there is only ONE speaker in the D620, it is NOT stereo, but mono. So the problem isn’t the speaker, that’s been checked, and you can hear faint audio there. The problem is with the audio driver circuit on the motherboard, which appears to be a couple transistors in a push-pull configuration. Yeah, good luck repairing THAT without replacing the motherboard AGAIN, probably at a cost around $350 this time.

One more thing: the ergonomics of this computer leave a lot to be desired. Again, with the Latitude D600, while that was a bit heavier, the feel of where your hands rested on the palmrests was fine. In the D620, there’s a stylistic ridge around the front of it which cuts RIGHT INTO your wrists if you spend any time at all typing. Oh sure, it LOOKS great, and in todays MBA-encrusted, Sheer Marketing Breakthrough, Lipstick-on-a-pig corporate mentality, form is always much more important than either fit or (God forbid) function! Not only that, but the keys on the keyboard are much stiffer to press than on the D600, or on other computers of the same ilk; I certainly prefer a keyboard that’s more like touch-typing than those old Royal manual typewriters of yesteryear. But hey, it’s all about Maximizing Shareholder Value, isn’t it? I guess we shoulda seen this coming. It’s finally culminated in the fact that the symbol of the epitome of American opulence and arrogance - the Hummer (Hummel?) - is now Made in China, soon to be available at your local Wal-Mart.

The MBA degree… what a useless waste of paper. If leadership could be taught, all MBAs would be great leaders. And we know they are not. This serves only to prove that the two most-common elements in the universe remain hydrogen and stupidity.

Cheers all. Y’all be safe out there. QUESTION EVERYTHING.

They suck. I’ve been a Dell user/purchaser since the 1990’s, and I can state quite emphatically that they’ve definitely gone downhill a bit more every year. In my professional circles, the joke is paraphrased “Dude, you been Delled!”

Having had a semblance of success with the Dell Latitude D600 from 2004-2006 - aside from running hot in the left palmrest, I thought this computer was pretty good. The sensitivity of the touchpad was adequate with virtually zero latency - important for me, since I do a lot of engineering work on the thing, can type over 90 wpm and, having flown helicopters and other aircraft, like to have a high degree of sensitivity at my fingertips, so I tend to set my touchpads into hypersensitive mode.

Ergo, having had some success with the Latitude D600 and thinking Dell might have been on track to redeem themselves, I STUPIDLY decided to buy into that Sheer Marketing Breakthrough and purchase a Dell Latitude D620 - thinking it would be 20 better than the D600!

What an India-Delta-Ten-Tango I was. Since I purchased this unit in 2007, I’ve had NOTHING but problems with it, to wit:

1. Two months into ownership, I had a battery failure. Fortunately, this one was BARELY into the recall cycle, so aside from the inconvenience, it was replaced by Dell. I only had to pay shipping to Puerto Rico, go figure.

2. Having FOUR USB ports available is a great feature of this PC; however, since day one I’d always had a problem with the bottom right port working intermittently, which I hypothesized (and was later proven) to be cold solder joints during the wave-soldering assembly of the motherboard. That problem was rectified in January 2009… more on that later.

3. In January 2008, the Alps Touch Pad gave up the ghost, so I had to have THAT replaced! In my humblest of estimations, I thought the Synaptics Touch Pad they used in the D600 was MUCH better than the Alps unit they used in the D620. There was virtually NO latency in the Synaptics, but the Alps in the D620 oesn’t respond nearly as quickly as the Synaptics in the D600 did. That’s untenable, considering the D600 is SUPPOSED to be running Dual Core processors!

4. In December 2008, the battery died AGAIN. This time, it was on my nickel to get it repaired.

5. The WiFi subfunction was always a bit flaky in operation.

6. In December 2008, the display finally decided to give up the ghost. When I first purchased this unit, there was always one pixel in the lower left portion of the screen that would NEVER change from black. I finally decided to get that replaced with the extended warranty. I had a guy come out, and during his investigation, found several other things that were ready to go south… so basically, I’ve had a new touchpad, new WiFi card, new display, new display back and front case, new top deck, AND new motherboard replaced!

Dear god. It hurts so much with earbuds in.

It works.

Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!

Thanks for providing the cure to the SYSTEM BEEP. I really appreciate it much!

Much Regards,
Tilley

This is such a terrific machine, much better than my Inspiron 5000 I had before. The size and weight are just right,

Working at a small college I see many many types of Laptops and deal with service. Our experience is Dell and Lenovo are at the top. We have tons of Gateways and I forget the model, but it’s very cheesy.

My ONLY complaint with this computer is that my internet radio is very hard to hear as the volume just seems too low.

I had the same problem and after installing the Sigmatel now everything is working wonderfully.

AHUA