IBM GXP fiasco secrets revealed

[sbp]

http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/6292

Now, the law firm behind the suit, Sheller Ludwig & Badey, has updated its news page about the case (thanks Lo Yuk Fai) with a PDF version of a bombshell report from the Watchdog section of Maximum PC magazine's February issue. (Reprinted without permission?) The report is based on IBM e-mails and documents made available recently by a California court in connection with the class-action suit. The Maximum PC folks have dug up some sensational info in these documents, including internal IBM discussions revealing failure rates 10 times as high as competing products from other manufacturers, an apparent determination to address the problem through marketing denials rather than manufacturing changes, and a decision to sell a batch of faulty drives into distribution (and thus to consumers) after its rejection by a larger customer due to high failure rates. These practices seem to have raised significant concern inside IBM, based on excerpts from internal communications. A sample: "We have woven a story based upon half truths and misinformation that now places IBM in a position that is almost untenable."

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IBM should be reamed with Deathstars by all the people who had one fail.

[RubberDuckie]

I am one of the FEW ...
My 75gig 75GXP HDD is still working great. Nice fast drive. I purchased this right when the GXPs came out and have been using it ever since.

/me counts his lucky stars

[Executioner]

Same here. I bought a 40 gig GXP back on 9-27-01 that is still working perfectly as I type this response. There is a firmware fix that IBM came out last year with. I believe I posted it here with the necessary info to download it. I never installed it because I never had a problem with my drive.

[RubberDuckie]

Ditto
glad to hear another drive still working
my fingers are crossed every day as this is my boot drive