December 2005 •
Dell: Notebook Durability Study
Test report prepared under contract from Dell Inc.
Executive summary
Dell Inc. commissioned VeriTest, a rvice of Lionbridge Technologies Inc., to conduct a competitive notebook durability study. VeriTest conducted a ries of tests to exerci the durability of the following
notebook computers: • Acer TravelMate 4652 • Dell Latitude D610 • HP Compaq nc6220 • Lenovo ThinkPad T43 Our testing consisted of conducting a ries of durability tests of two units each of the four notebook models under test.
After a t of preconditioning activities, we conducted a t of durability test runs on the four pairs
of notebooks under test. We performed the durability study by
subjecting the notebooks to the following tests:
A. Operational Free Fall Drop
Test - The objective of the
无用之用
Operational Free Fall Drop
Test was to measure the
level o f damage sustained
while the notebook systems
were dropped from a t of
specific predefined heights.
B. Operational Shock Test -
The objective of the
Operational Shock Test was
to measure the level of damage sustained while the notebook systems were
accelerated to specific levels.
C. Spill Test - The objective of the Spill Test was to measure the effects of notebook systems when liquid is spilled on the notebook keyboard.
D. Dust Test - The objective of the Dust Test was to measure the effects of notebook systems when expod to fibrous dust particles over an extended period.
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Key findings q In our 14-inch drop testing, the two Dell Latitude D610 notebooks were the only syst
ems that had no bad ctors. One Lenovo notebook was unable to boot, and required a replacement hard drive to continue testing. q In our 29-inch drop testing, one Dell notebook reported only one bad ctor, and the other notebook reported no bad ctors. Three of the other six notebooks (one Acer, one HP, and one Lenovo) were unable to boot, and the Acer motherboard was permanently damaged during the test. q In the 162G operational shock test, the two Dell notebooks pasd all PC-Doctor tests and one successfully completed the WinBench 99 final run test. One HP and one Acer notebook were unable to complete the 162G operational shock test. q In all cas, default ttings were ud; Lenovo ThinkPad T43’s Active Protection System was defaulted “on”. q All notebooks in our test successfully pasd the spill and dust tests.
Plea refer to the Test Methodology ction of this report for complete details of how we conducted the tests. All units were tested using default factory ttings, including the enablement of Lenovo’s Active Protection System.
In our drop testing, the two Dell Latitude D610 notebooks were the only pair of notebooks that had no bad ctors after the 14-inch operational free fall drop test. We found only one bad ctor on one of the Dell Latitude D610 notebooks after the subquent 29-inch drop test. Although some of the other notebooks were able to boot after the 14-inch free fall test, none of the other notebook pairs w
ere able to successfully boot after the subquent 29-inch drop tests.
In our shock testing, all of the notebooks pasd the 142G operational shock test, except for one of the HP Compaq nc6220 notebooks. After the Bottom oriented shock test on this notebook, PC-Doctor found one bad ctor. After subquent shock tests, PC-Doctor was able to run to completion with no bad ctors on this notebook.
At the 162G operational shock level, the two Dell notebooks pasd all PC-Doctor tests and successfully completed the WinBench 99 final run test on one of the notebooks. One HP notebook booted successfully, but was unable to run PC-Doctor after the bottom oriented shock test and could not complete the test. One Acer notebook was unable to boot after the bottom oriented shock test, while the other unable to complete this test as damage had occurred in earlier tests. Both Lenovo systems pasd the 162G operational shock test.
All notebooks in our test successfully pasd the spill test and dust tests.
Test Results
药品注册管理法Dell Inc. commissioned VeriTest, a rvice of Lionbridge Technologies Inc., to conduct a competitive
notebook durability study. VeriTest conducted a ries of tests to exerci the durability of the following notebook systems:
•Acer TravelMate 4652
•Dell Latitude D610
•HP Compaq nc6220
•Lenovo ThinkPad T43
Our testing consisted of conducting a ries of durability tests of two units each of the four notebook models under test. We conducted all preconditioning, drop, shock, and spill testing on the premis of Dell Inc. in Austin, TX. We conducted the dust test on the premis of Professional Testing Inc (PTI), an independent, NVLAP accredited laboratory () bad in Round Rock, TX. All units were tested using factory ttings.
After a ries of preconditioning activities on the notebooks under test, we performed the durability study by subjecting the eight notebook systems in this testbed to the following test types:
A. Operational Free Fall Drop Test - The o bjective of the Operational Free Fall Drop Test was to
measure the level of damage sustained while the notebook systems were dropped from a t of
specific predefined heights.
B. Operational Shock Test - The objective of the Operational Shock Test was to measure the level of
damage sustained while the notebook systems were accelerated to specific levels.
C. Spill Test - The objective of the Spill Test was to measure the effects on notebook systems when
liquid is spilled on the notebook keyboard.
D. Dust Test - The objective of the Dust Test was to measure the effects on notebook systems when杭州红星剧院
expod to fibrous dust particles over an extended period.
For complete details on the test methodology, e the Test Methodology ction.
We tested two identical notebooks from each notebook manufacturer. We appended the digits 01 and 02 to the notebook name. For example, the two Acer notebooks were labeled Acer-01 and Acer-02.
Operational Free Fall Drop Test
We dropped each notebook from a height of 14 inches and from 29 inches, in that order. Prior to running the test, we examined the hard drive within each notebook using PC-Doctor. After each drop test, we reexamined the notebook as described in the test methodology ction to measure the total number of bad ctors. The table in Figure 1 illustrates the ctor and notebook condition after each drop test.
Acer-01 4 Bad Sectors
Acer-02 No Bad Sector
Dell-01 No Bad Sector
劳务派遣暂行规定Dell-02 No Bad Sector
HP-01 10 Bad Sectors
HP-02 No Bad Sectors
Lenovo-01 11 Bad Sectors
Lenovo-02 Unable to Boot
Figure 1. Operational 14-Inch Free Fall Drop Test Results
As shown in Figure 1, we obrved no bad ctors on either Dell Latitude D610 notebook after the 14-inch drop tests. Acer-01, HP-01 and Lenovo-01 exhibited bad ctors. Lenovo-02 failed to boot after the 14-inch drop test, requiring a replacement hard drive in order to continue testing.
Acer-01 3 Bad Sectors
婚姻状况证明Acer-02 Unable to Boot from hard drive or from CD. Unable to complete testing
Dell-01 No Bad Sector
Dell-02 1 Bad Sector
HP-01 Unable to Boot
HP-02 142 Bad Sectors
Lenovo-01 15 Bad Sectors元旦习俗
Lenovo-02 (Replaced HD before drop) Unable to boot
Figure 2. Operational 29-Inch Free Fall Drop Test Results
月亮相关的诗句As shown in Figure 2, we obrved no bad ctors on the Dell -01 system and only one bad ctor on the Dell-02 notebook after the 29-inch free fall drop test. Acer-01, HP-02 and Lenovo-01 exhibited bad ctors. Furthermore, Acer-02, HP-01, and Lenovo-02, were unable to boot after the 29-inch drop. The Acer-02 was unable to boot after a replacement hard drive and unable to boot from CD. As a result of the 29-inch drop test, we found the Acer-02 motherboard to have sustained damage that prevented us from performing additional tests with this notebook.
Operational Shock Test
We performed an operational shock test as described in the test methodology ction. We performed testing at both 142G and 162G shock levels.
Figure 3 illustrates the results that we obrved when performing the 142G shock testing. Each column with the Bottom, Right, Left, Front, and Back labels describes the outcome of shock testing in the different orientations. The last column, WinBench 99, describes the outcome of the full WinBench 99 test run that we conducted at the end of the five shock subtests.
Acer-01 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful Acer-02 NA NA NA NA NA NA
Dell-01 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful Dell-02 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful HP-01 1 Bad Sector Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful HP-02 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful Lenovo-01 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful Lenovo-02 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful
Figure 3. Operational Shock Drop Test at 142 G Test Res ults
As shown in Figure 3, all of the notebooks pasd the subquent PC-Doctor test and the WinBench 99 final run test, except for the HP-01. After the Bottom oriented shock test on the HP-01 notebook, PC-Doctor found one bad ctor. After subquent shock tests, PC-Doctor was able to run to completion with no bad ctors on the HP-01 notebook. One Acer unit (Acer-02) was not able to complete this test as damage had occurred in earlier tests.
Figure 4 illustrates the results that we obrved when performing the 162G shock testing. Each column with the Bottom, Right, Left, Front, and Back labels describes the outcome of shock testing in the different orientations. The last column, WinBench 99, describes the outcome of the full WinBench 99 test run that we conducted at the end of the five shock subtests.
B
NA NA NA NA NA Acer-01 Unable to
Boot
Acer-02 NA NA NA NA NA NA
Dell-01 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Failed Dell-02 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful
Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Failed HP-01 3 ( 1 from
previous
shock + 2
more found)
bad ctors
NA NA NA NA NA HP-02 Booted
Successfully,
but unable to
run PC-Doctor
Lenovo -01 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful Lenovo -02 Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Pasd Successful Figure 4. Operational Shock Drop Test at 162G Test Results
As shown in Figure 4, the Lenovo notebook pair was the only pair of matching notebooks that pasd all subquent PC-Doctor tests and the WinBench 99 final run tests. The Dell notebook pair pasd all PC-Doctor tests and successfully completed the WinBench 99 final run test on one of the notebooks. The Acer unit was unable to boot or run PC-Doctor successfully. The other Acer unit was not able to complete this test
as damage had occurred in earlier tests. On HP unit was unable to run PC Doctor after the first shock subtest, and the other unit pasd all tests except the WinBench 99 final run.
Spill Test
We performed a Spill Test to measure the effects on the notebook when liquid was spilled on the notebook keyboard. As shown in Figure 5, all of the notebooks under test successfully pasd the final WinBench 99 test run at the end of the spill test.
Acer-01 Successful
Dell-01 Successful
HP-01 Successful
Lenovo-01 Successful
Figure 5. Spill Test Results
Dust Test
We performed one pass of the Dust Test to measure the effects on notebook systems when expod to dust particles over an extended period.As shown in Figure 6, all of the notebooks under test successfully pasd the final WinBench 99 test run at the end of the dust test.
Acer-01 Successful
Dell-01 Successful
HP-01 Successful
Lenovo-01 Successful
Figure 6. Dust Test Results
Test Methodology
Dell Inc. commissioned VeriTest, a rvice of Lionbridge Technologies Inc., to conduct a competitive notebook durability study. VeriTest conducted a ries of tests to exerci the durability of the following notebook systems:
•Dell Latitude D610
•Lenovo ThinkPad T43
•HP Compaq nc6220
•Acer TravelMate 4652
Our testing consisted of conducting a ries of durability tests on two units each of the four notebook models under test. We conducted a ll preconditioning, drop, shock, and spill testing on the premis of Dell Inc. in Austin, TX. We conducted the dust test on the premis of Professional Testing Inc (PTI), an independent, NVLAP accredited laboratory () in Round Rock, TX.
To ensure the repeatability and consistency of the test results, we conducted this study using two notebook systems from each vendor. Dell supplied VeriTest with all eight notebook systems in the test environment. Before testing began, VeriTest verified that all eight notebook systems were bought from authorized retail stores from respective vendors. We opened all packaging and manufacturer als. Before conducting any durability test, VeriTest installed PC Magazine’s WinBench 99 and verified that all notebooks under test
