MaximumPC 2003 12

WatchDog Maximum PC takes a bite out of bad gear

24 MAXIMUMPC DECEMBER 2003

Maximum PC takes a bite out of bad gear

Say hello to Fred,

WatchDog of the Month.

IBM >Microsoft >Lexar >ATI

Lawsuit, Anyone?

Another class-action lawsuit has been filed against

IBM over the alleged unreliability of its 75GXP

Deskstar hard drives. The suit, filed in Texas state

court, is similar to lawsuits already pending against

IBM. It accuses the company of selling a hard drive

with an abysmal failure rate. Although much of the

discovery in the case is sealed, a Bloomberg News

article revealed a couple interesting allegations:

Lubricants in the 75GXP hard drives would

decompose and solidify on the platters causing

potentially fatal errors.

IBM sold 3.8 million of the hard drives, but

says of those, just 180,000 to 190,000 were replaced.

(That’s far less than what the suits claim.)

Attorneys who filed the suit in Texas declined

to comment on the case. Although IBM says the

failure rate is nowhere near what the lawsuits

allege, 190,000 drives returned to the company

would mean that approximately 5 percent may have

gone bad. The industry standard for hard drive fail-

ure is below 1 percent.

IBM attorneys said during a hearing for the

California lawsuit that the 5 percent figure isn’t itself

accurate as the company doesn’t test the drives

that are returned, so it doesn’t know whether all the

drives were in fact defective.

IBM’s numbers, however, wouldn’t include hard

drives that were not returned by frustrated computer

users who tired of the replacement drives failing as

well. The California court case has been delayed

until November, but the Dog will be there covering

it. Similar cases handled by the firm Sheller, Ludwig

& Badey have been filed in Connecticut, Florida,

Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and

Pennsylvania. Woof.

******

Suing IBM over an allegedly defective hard drive

that can lose all your data is one thing, but a group of

computer users in Los Angeles has filed suit against

several computer makers, claiming that hard drive

capacities are misrepresented.

According to news reports, the

suit says Apple, Dell, IBM,

Gateway, HP, Sharp,

Sony, and Toshiba

all sell hard

drives that are

smaller than their

advertised specs.

A 100GB hard drive,

for instance, actually

holds just 93GB of data. The

Dog has reported on all kinds of litigation,

and this suit strikes him as pretty silly. After all, the

computer industry’s unique way of defining a giga-

byte is common knowledge. Attorneys for plaintiffs

Dan Lanchau, Adam Selkowitz, Tim Swan, and John

Zahabian refused to speak with the Dog, and it’s

no wonder: This case sounds like a major waste of

time, energy, and money.

******

Speaking of lawsuits, Microsoft’s long-running anti-

trust case with the states has drawn to a close, and

consumers hurt by the behemoth’s alleged

monopolistic practices can expect a

whopping— hold onto your seats —$

for each copy of Windows or MS-

DOS purchased between February

18, 1995 and December 15, 2001.

Consumers are also eligible to

receive $29 for each copy of Office , $

for each individual copy of Word (including versions

of Home Essentials and Works Suite, which shipped

with Word ), and $26 for each copy of Excel pur-

chased during the same time period. Now it’s up to

consumers to either submit a claim form, write to the

court to object to the set-

tlement, go to one of the

settlement hearings, or

do nothing (which would

amount to a forfeiture of

the vouchers as well as

the right to contest the

suit or file another suit).

Most consumers should

have received docu-

ments about the settle-

ment, but more informa-

tion is available at

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/legal/class/.

State-specific settlement info is also available.

Californians should visit http://www.microsoftcalsettlement

.com. Floridians should check out www

.microsoftproductssettlement.com/florida/

home.htm. And West Virginians should point their

browsers to http://www.microsoftproductssettlement

.com/westvirginia/home.htm.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Rated X

DEAR DOG: My new digital camera uses SD card

memory. There are two types of SD available:

One is your standard SD card memory, and

the other is 32x SD card memory, supplied by

Lexar Media. While some web sites claim the

Lexar card to be faster than the standard

SD card, I couldn’t find one web site

that didn’t price the 32x SD card higher.

With some confidence, I purchased the

32x Lexar Media SD card. Since then, I

learned in conversa-

tions with two sepa-

rate Lexar support

guys that there’s no

difference between

the speed of the 32x

SD cards and the

standard SD cards

Lexar >ATI

capacities are misrepresented.

According to news reports, the

suit says Apple, Dell, IBM,

holds just 93GB of data. The

Dog has reported on all kinds of litigation,

and this suit strikes him as pretty silly. After all, the

computer industry’s unique way of defining a giga-

byte is common knowledge. Attorneys for plaintiffs

Dan Lanchau, Adam Selkowitz, Tim Swan, and John

A second-front against

IBM has opened in Texas,

where a consumer has accused the

company of selling defective drives.

An x-rated card

from Lexar

guarantees a

certain write

speed, while

generic cards

don’t.

“

IBM SOLD 3.8 MILLION OF THE

HARD DRIVES, BUT SAYS OF THOSE,

180,000 TO 190,000 WERE REPLACED.

THIS MONTH: The WatchDog goes after...