thisisbroken.com— This is a blog posting of a hell lattitude notebook so poorly designed that you cannot plug both usb ports in at the same time. This is one serious design flaw.
Aug 9, 2006View in Crawl 4
That is a Dell D series laptop, we have a bunch of them there are 4 ports in total, two more in the back. The problem often has more to do with how thick your USB plug is. Sure they could have made it on on the side wider to accommodate more more styles of USB plug, but the laptop has 4 ports in total making it above the average of 2 I see on most brands.
On the Dell D800 that plug *is* a single USB + weird power adapter plug. Confused people all the time at work, as well as the blogger.On the next generation, the (very, very similar looking) Dell D610/810's it's two perfectly good, useable USB plugs. (Same with the not-similar-looking Dell D620, which is the current version...)I suppose that "old Dell laptop model has confusing plug; fixed in next version" would be an accurate, if not as exciting, title.Marked as Inaccurate. (Seems to be happening a whole lot lately on Digg... I thought the whole citizen-journalist thing is supposed to be *better* than Slashdot...)
I have seen this flaw in the HP/Compact nc8430 as well as many external USB hubs (targus ). No digg as this seems to be a problem with multiple hardware manufactures and the author is pointing the finger at Dell for slanderous purposes.
Yeah I have a Dell D610, and the USB ports are too close together. And fitting two USBdevices can get real snug. What the Dell was Dell thinking when they designed this?
To everyone smugly asserting that it's a power connector:Regardless of whether it is a power connector or not (the consensus on the originating site seems to be that it is in fact two USB ports and I can personally confirm that Dell has indeed placed USB ports in such a way even if it isn't on this particular model), wouldn't designing a custom port that looks nearly identical to a USB port and placing it directly above or below a USB be port be a wildly poor design choice? To me, this is a bigger design flaw than if they were in fact just two USB ports too close together.
Let's assume for the moment that this fellow's notebook DOES have the D-Port for extra USB power. You'd think that the manufacturer would have put a small sticker, plastic plug, or otherwise clearly labeled on the case the fact that the top portion of the port is *not* a standard USB port.Who actually reads documentation anyway?
This is not a poor design. Those are not supposed to be the user's USB ports, that's the socket for plugging in the external drive components. I work with these models all the time. Yes, you can jam a USB device in there and it'll work.... but it's a double-usb socket designed for use with their external drives... NOT with 2 user USB devices. THIS IS INACCURATE. Those aren't supposed to be the USB sockets you're using... the USB sockets are on the back of the laptop. This is not poor design... simply a user who doesn't know what they're talking about.
What a MORON!!!!!Only the bottom slot of the D/Bay connector works as a USB port, the top one is a power port for the D/Bay.I wonder what would happen if he DID get a usb device plugged into that power port?This may have been complicated and misunderstood because of a lot of laptop reviewers falsely identifying this connector as 2 more USB connectors for a total of 4 on the D800.
Closed AccountAug 9, 2006
Dell? Design flaws? Say it's not so!Er...wait....
lazybonesAug 9, 2006
That is a Dell D series laptop, we have a bunch of them there are 4 ports in total, two more in the back. The problem often has more to do with how thick your USB plug is. Sure they could have made it on on the side wider to accommodate more more styles of USB plug, but the laptop has 4 ports in total making it above the average of 2 I see on most brands.
mech9t8Aug 10, 2006
On the Dell D800 that plug *is* a single USB + weird power adapter plug. Confused people all the time at work, as well as the blogger.On the next generation, the (very, very similar looking) Dell D610/810's it's two perfectly good, useable USB plugs. (Same with the not-similar-looking Dell D620, which is the current version...)I suppose that "old Dell laptop model has confusing plug; fixed in next version" would be an accurate, if not as exciting, title.Marked as Inaccurate. (Seems to be happening a whole lot lately on Digg... I thought the whole citizen-journalist thing is supposed to be *better* than Slashdot...)
_____3Aug 10, 2006
I had this exact laptop, never had that problem. I suppose if you're using fat enough cables, this could happen on just about any lappy.
yankeelandAug 10, 2006
I have seen this flaw in the HP/Compact nc8430 as well as many external USB hubs (targus ). No digg as this seems to be a problem with multiple hardware manufactures and the author is pointing the finger at Dell for slanderous purposes.
astrotrainAug 10, 2006
Yeah I have a Dell D610, and the USB ports are too close together. And fitting two USBdevices can get real snug. What the Dell was Dell thinking when they designed this?
grovbergAug 10, 2006
To everyone smugly asserting that it's a power connector:Regardless of whether it is a power connector or not (the consensus on the originating site seems to be that it is in fact two USB ports and I can personally confirm that Dell has indeed placed USB ports in such a way even if it isn't on this particular model), wouldn't designing a custom port that looks nearly identical to a USB port and placing it directly above or below a USB be port be a wildly poor design choice? To me, this is a bigger design flaw than if they were in fact just two USB ports too close together.
jcz1978Aug 10, 2006
Let's assume for the moment that this fellow's notebook DOES have the D-Port for extra USB power. You'd think that the manufacturer would have put a small sticker, plastic plug, or otherwise clearly labeled on the case the fact that the top portion of the port is *not* a standard USB port.Who actually reads documentation anyway?
wwwdot1jesdotusAug 10, 2006
Ummm...I hate to say this but you don't plug ports in. You plug devices into the ports.
mullerAug 11, 2006
This is not a poor design. Those are not supposed to be the user's USB ports, that's the socket for plugging in the external drive components. I work with these models all the time. Yes, you can jam a USB device in there and it'll work.... but it's a double-usb socket designed for use with their external drives... NOT with 2 user USB devices. THIS IS INACCURATE. Those aren't supposed to be the USB sockets you're using... the USB sockets are on the back of the laptop. This is not poor design... simply a user who doesn't know what they're talking about.
hurricaneJun 3, 2007
What a MORON!!!!!Only the bottom slot of the D/Bay connector works as a USB port, the top one is a power port for the D/Bay.I wonder what would happen if he DID get a usb device plugged into that power port?This may have been complicated and misunderstood because of a lot of laptop reviewers falsely identifying this connector as 2 more USB connectors for a total of 4 on the D800.