"Dell's effort to court the small business market with its new Vostro line of computers may be foundering," the reader first wrote me during the holidays. "Recent messages on Dell's Community Forum have complained about new Vostro 200s that fail to boot. The problem appears to be related to an error in the current BIOS or a configuration error in the image used to install Windows XP. Dell's response has been to ignore the issue, leaving its small business customers to fend for themselves in an effort to come up with a solution. This doesn't seem like a very promising approach to winning customer confidence."

The reader was one of a number of Vostro customers on the forum who were reporting they'd encountered a "Black Screen of Death" with their new systems. "I've experienced the problem with two of them so far and I still have one more in the box," the reader wrote. "We have ordered Dell computers for many years and had planned to continue ordering a few Vostros each month as we upgrade all our desktop machines. Unless Dell addresses this issue very soon, we will be forced to move to a different vendor. I don't have the time to repair new computers right after I've pulled them out of the box."

Attempts by the reader and others on the forum to get help from Dell support yielded no solutions, nor even an admission from Dell that there was a problem with the Vostros. "I did see a message from a Dell employee on a somewhat related thread in Dell's forum where several customers had attempted to fix the black screen problem by updating the BIOS," the reader wrote. "Unfortunately, a bug in version 1.08 of the Vostro BIOS causes the computer's fan to run continuously at full speed. A message from the Dell employee stated they were watching the thread and the issue had been escalated. Weeks later the buggy BIOS was still available and Dell was offering no solution or warning. Apparently escalation is a slow process at Dell."

As December turned to January, forum participants were hopeful that Dell engineers returning from the holidays would soon diagnosis and fix the Vostro problem. But Dell continued to ignore the issue, telling customers who called that it must be related to the fan problem or a known Symantec bug, even though many of those experiencing the problem had not installed Norton. "Dell has still not acknowledged the problem," the reader wrote me. "Yesterday I took another new Vostro 200 out of the box. Reboots after installing Windows updates and Norton AV were uneventful. This morning when I attempted to start the machine, I received the by now familiar black screen. Three out of the four Vostros I've received have now had this problem."

With no help forthcoming from Dell, the forum participants began trading possible solutions, gradually pinpointing the source of the problem as incorrect instructions for installing drivers. "A set of procedures posted by another Dell customer for repairing XP and reverting to an older BIOS seems to have fixed the problem for me," the reader wrote me late last month. "Dell released an updated BIOS. I don't know whether it fixes the problem or not -- since all four Vostros seem to be working now, I've decided to leave well enough alone."

But the reader and other forum participants remain upset that Dell ignored the issue. A message from a Dell employee on Jan. 24th, reiterating that the fan or Symantec was at fault, provoked a number of angry responses from those who had been struggling with the black screen. "What should have taken weeks to resolve has now gone on for months without resolve," one forum participant posted. " Considering the size of this thread, the number of people affected, and their positions in the IT community, Dell should have put forth more of an effort towards resolving this issue. Unfortunately it appears Dell has spent little time and effort to rectify the situation. As an IT professional this is unacceptable and forces me to look towards another vendor."

Long-time Dell loyalist though he is, the reader is also contemplating alternatives. "Dell's behavior in this is baffling," the reader wrote. "Perhaps, the company is afraid that if it acknowledges a problem, it will be held responsible for fixing it. If I knew of another vendor with a better track record with small business customers, I'd quit ordering from Dell in a heartbeat. I'm just not sure where to turn."

Where do you think the reader should turn? Is there a PC vendor that really does pay attention to the small business customer? Post your comments below or write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com.