I find that the general theme throughout these WM5 posts is that some people have wonderful outcomes along with many 'tips' about how they achieved those outcomes, while many others have such bad results they are forced to roll back or return their units to Dell.
Those with bad results have often tried the many 'tweaks' offered without the good results reported by their creators. What is more, the 'tweaks' are so varied that they suggest there is no single cause for the problems experienced.
Why should that be the case?
I have an hypothesis. I wonder if HTC, who designs or makes the machines for Dell, actually uses slightly different components in different machines that react to the OS or its drivers slightly differently.
That would explain why different people have such different outcomes with the upgrade.
It's possible - there were several versions of x50v - they differ by serial number under the battery (eg. mine is A01). So maby it's the same with x51v.
It's the same as buying two identical cars. One gets much better gas mileage and/or has more power. I used to own two 2000 Honda Accords. Both were EXV6s. One had better power but got less mileage. My wife and I even swapped cars for a couple on months and there was no change in the performance. It's also the same with computers. So, I have to believe it would be the same for Pocket PCs.
Manufactures genarally get what pieces they need where they can. Some batches may be better than others.
When they all get put together, it may be slightly better/worse than other devices made with other pieces.
The version number, A01, won't tell you anything about that. The version numbers are for when they change what kind of parts, a design in parts, etc in an effort to fix or change something.
Not all A01 came from the same batch of parts.
That may be some of the trouble. But a lot of the trouble is also different software people put on the device and also how they use the device/software.
It's the same as buying two identical cars. One gets much better gas mileage and/or has more power. I used to own two 2000 Honda Accords. Both were EXV6s. One had better power but got less mileage. My wife and I even swapped cars for a couple on months and there was no change in the performance. It's also the same with computers. So, I have to believe it would be the same for Pocket PCs.
I completely disagree on both accounts. The car differences you mention are most likely the result of adaptive performance; modern cars "learn" how you drive and adjust shift points and timings to meet your demands.
Computers with the same specs, and the same configurations, will have near identical performance. This isn't to say that every P4 3GHz machine will be the same, because there's differences in motherboards, chipsets, memory, bus speeds, etc. But two Dell PCs of the same model line with the same specs will perfom as such.
There are subtle differences in the Axim x50v line, I've seen this by comparing co-workers machines. There was some kind of screen change made between the A04 and A05 series, and the latter has a slight blue tint. Its very minor and impossible to see without having both devices right next to each other.
Responding to the post about manufacturers using different parts, and some batches being better than others, I have to somewhat disagree there too. Any good manufacturing house, certainly one with ISO certification, should have record of exactly what parts went into each revision. This is important down the road, if you find out that parts from one manufacturer have stability/safety issues. You need to be able to recall your products should that occur, and recalling every one of them because you don't know what went on in the assembly process is a very bad option.
To address the original post, yes, there are subtle differences in the Axims along different revsions. But, this should not have an effect on the performance of the device, and certainly has nothing to do with the WM5 problems we are seeing. If you could gather up all of the WM5 upgraded users on this site, hard-reset all of their Axims, then compared them, they would all have the exact same problems.
__________________ Dell Support Rep on 1/12/06: Only a small number of users are having issues (WM5 on x50v)... Dell will be releasing (update for x50v) but it will not be soon.
I have to agree with bluevolume. I just purchased my X50v in September, and with the same programs loaded, it runs exactly the same as a friends X50v purchased in December 2004. Now neither of us have upgraded to WM5 yet, but with 2003se, they run identically.
Responding to the post about manufacturers using different parts, and some batches being better than others, I have to somewhat disagree there too. Any good manufacturing house, certainly one with ISO certification, should have record of exactly what parts went into each revision. This is important down the road, if you find out that parts from one manufacturer have stability/safety issues. You need to be able to recall your products should that occur, and recalling every one of them because you don't know what went on in the assembly process is a very bad option.
I didn't mean (or say) they don't know what parts are going in or they don't know what on in the assembly process.
I meant the parts that get used may differ slightly in quality.
Some RAM chips work faster/slower than others from the same manufacturer with the same specs.
Example: video card makers use one card design (in some, but not all models or cases). They make the highest card and if it doesn't meet the performance tests for the high card, they drop the stats and see if it meets the next card below it.
They don't do that with all cards or all models, but why throw away a good card when it meets it can meet the performance for the card with lower speeds.
I would expect that identical x50v's, side by side, hard reset and upgraded, would perform the same. But if that was the case, we wouldn't see so many experienced PPC users going throught the same process with such opposite results. Many indicate that they had problems before installing any third party software, and I am one. Yet others have their machines work fine before and after installing software.
I don't pretend to understand. I'd just like to get my WM5 working as smoothly as it did before the upgrade.
Perhaps I'll hard reset and re-install the upgrade again this weekend. Or just roll back. I don't see many useful new features in WM5 anyway.
Although I sure would like better battery run time and faster WiFi that some lucky lottery winners have gotten...
I didn't mean (or say) they don't know what parts are going in or they don't know what on in the assembly process.
I meant the parts that get used may differ slightly in quality.
Some RAM chips work faster/slower than others from the same manufacturer with the same specs.
Example: video card makers use one card design (in some, but not all models or cases). They make the highest card and if it doesn't meet the performance tests for the high card, they drop the stats and see if it meets the next card below it.
They don't do that with all cards or all models, but why throw away a good card when it meets it can meet the performance for the card with lower speeds.
that is problems with YIELD, and your explanation is perfectly correct
however with the axim, the specs are one, there are no grades, they cannot put lower grade components into it
ie: if axim requires a 624 cpu, there maybe high grades which can hit 1000... or lower grades which only hit 500.. in this case dell will HAVE to use the grade that can hit 624.. ya get what i'm saying? quality of components dont matter for this product because they have to meet the min specs required by dell
that is problems with YIELD, and your explanation is perfectly correct
however with the axim, the specs are one, there are no grades, they cannot put lower grade components into it
ie: if axim requires a 624 cpu, there maybe high grades which can hit 1000... or lower grades which only hit 500.. in this case dell will HAVE to use the grade that can hit 624.. ya get what i'm saying? quality of components dont matter for this product because they have to meet the min specs required by dell
Agreed on all of these points. One thing I could have mentioned in my post is that the devices are all equal when used as intended. If you start getting in to overclocking and such, we would probably find that some Axims are better than others. This would be very apparent if changing bus timings -- certain machines would be more tolerant as the various components have a limit lying at some point above basic spec.
__________________ Dell Support Rep on 1/12/06: Only a small number of users are having issues (WM5 on x50v)... Dell will be releasing (update for x50v) but it will not be soon.
Is it possible that the differences people are experiencing with WM5 upgrades are due to the PC's, or the software on them, that they are using to do the upgrade?
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