However, when I upgraded my unit to version 3.1 of their Disk Station Manager (DSM) last week, I found that they had added a very undesirable “feature” which generates large thumbnail images for anything in your photo directory, apparently for use with the iPad app. Since I neither have an iPad nor have even enabled the PhotoStation component of the DSM software (which provides for a hosted web photo gallery–no thanks, I’m fine with Picasa web albums), I just wanted to turn this off. Furthermore, I found within a couple days of installing the update that the thumbnail generation process was constantly churning the disk and running the CPU at 100%, to the degree that normal file serving operations ran poorly. With the thumbnail process running, the unit could no longer even keep up with simple operations such as watching a video from the server over the normal Samba shares.

To my dismay, there is no option in the extensive DSM user interface to turn off this feature. I remember being slightly annoyed at this in previous versions, but it only made the system unusable once they added the XL thumbnails for the iPad app. (I have an nightly script that backs up my photo library to an offsite host via rsync every night, and I’d written it to ignore the @eaDir directories where the thumbnails are stored.) The synology forums seemed to be full of a lot of confused people trying to figure out how to turn off the thumbnail generation, but I was eventually able to identify the two key parts of the system that affect this.

If you want to simply disable XL thumbnail generation and leave everything else as-is, the file to edit is /usr/syno/etc.defaults/thumb.conf. You need to edit this file to remove the block starting with [thumb 1280]:

[thumb 1280]
size=1280
quality=90
filename=SYNOPHOTO:THUMB_XL.jpg

Note that there’s also a /usr/syno/etc/thumb.conf, but on my system it didn’t have an XL thumbnail block so apparently the file in etc.defaults was overriding it. (BTW if you need help getting an ssh session into your box and editing files, there’s lots of help for that on the Synology site. I logged in as root and used vi.)

The thumb.conf file is read by a thumbnail generation daemon (service) that is started through /usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S77synomkthumbd.sh. So after editing the thumb.conf file you can either restart your system, or just restart this service:

/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S77synomkthumbd.sh stop
/usr/syno/etc/rc.d/S77synomkthumbd.sh start

Once I did this, I no longer had “convert” processes at the top of my process list churning the hard drive and maxing out the CPU.

Alternatively, it sounds like you can also just prevent the thumbnail daemon from running at all on system startup. The rc scripts work a little differently from other *nix systems that I’ve used (although it’s been awhile); renaming the file didn’t appear to prevent it from starting when I tried that. The Synology wiki recommends adding a premature “exit” line right after the initial #!/bin/sh as a means of preventing a service from starting automatically (or ever, actually). I may go ahead and deactivate the process at some point but for now I was just satisfied that the XL thumbnails weren’t being generated.

In closing: Hey, Synology! Nice idea about the iPad gallery, but how about making it an option, once that’s not on by default, and with the warning that it will make older units practically unusable for their main purpose if activated?! I figured it out, but I’ve got some experience with *nix systems and the command line. I can see how a normal consumer user could be left completely helpless trying to address this problem and most likely end up blaming it on a (nonexistent) hardware fault.

I contacted support at XFX (the graphics card maker) and they recommended the usual (check connections, update motherboard bios, Windows drivers, etc.) but ended up advising me to return the card. Newegg, as usual, was great with their RMA support. Unfortunately, I experienced the exact same problem with the replacement card!

I eventually found the solution in some threads on the Anandtech and [H]ard|OCP message boards. It turns out that there’s a common problem with NVIDIA cards and many of ViewSonic’s 20″ widescreen monitors (most commonly the VX2025 but with mine as well), in which the monitor’s EDID settings get “stuck” into a state in which a DVI signal can’t wake the unit from standby mode. There are two possible solutions. The first, which worked for me, is to take the following steps:

1. Connect both DVI and D-Sub when the computer and monitor are turned on
2. Turn off the computer
3. Disconnect the D-Sub, leaving the DVI in place
4. Unplug the monitor’s power for at least 5 seconds
5. Power the computer back on

When I did this, suddenly my monitor recognized the DVI signal and I got a nice digital picture. Another approach, which seems to have worked for a lot of people, is to use a utility called DVI Recover. I’m not sure where that program came from and can’t vouch for its safety or effectiveness, but from reading the message threads it sounds like it’s helped quite a few people.

Anyway, I was pretty frustrated with this problem at first and wasn’t finding much through general Google searches, so I hope this post helps someone in a similar situation. And ViewSonic definitely needs to get their act together and fix this problem!

Helpful threads:

• Problems with Viewsonic VX2025
• VX2025wm won’t display with DVI cable from 7900GT?
• VX2025WM problems?

The real reason I chose the Dell, though, is the screen. It’s a 15.4 inch widescreen WUXGA LCD panel, which has an outstanding resolution of 1920×1200 pixels, which until only recently was unheard of for any consumer-priced LCD display, much less one on a laptop. I don’t know how Dell did it, but they were offering the WUXGA screen as an option for only $150 more than the default 1280×800 screen, which for me was a no-brainer.

I had been somewhat concerned that the high resolution would make text too small considering that most screens of the same physical size only support 1280×800, which provides approximately 72 DPI. This screen is fitting 50% more pixels in the same length on each axis, which bumps the DPI up to 108. Then again, I’m one of those relative old-timers brought up on UNIX workstations running X-windows on gigantic high-resolution displays, so I don’t mind tiny text in exchange for screen real estate.

My worries were put to rest as soon as I fired up the machine, however. Although the text is tiny to be sure, it’s perfectly readable for my eyes and very sharp. The screen’s brightness seems very good overall, and I haven’t detected any dead pixels. Dell pre-sets the default Windows installation to enlarged screen fonts for high resolution displays so that text comes out looking more like 72 DPI size, but I got rid of that setting as soon as I reinstalled Windows, which happened about five minutes after I first powered up the new machine.

Who put all this crap on my laptop?

I had heard tales of Dell’s prolific preinstalled bloatware, but I still wasn’t ready for the sheer volume of crap that commenced in pummeling Windows performace during and after boot-up. The barrage of application windows and configuration popups could only be described as comical. I knew I’d be reinstalling Windows when I ordered the machine, however, since I can get Windows XP at a substantial student discount. I wished I’d been able to order the machine with no OS at all, but settled for the least expensive option of XP Media Center Edition instead.

A clean install of Windows XP Pro went smoothly, and was greatly aided by Dell’s resource CD, which detects the peripherals and launches the appropriate driver installers.

Industrial and interface design

For the most part, I prefer the Inspiron’s 6000 design over the more common black Dell laptop (Latitude?) design. The outer enclosure is metallic silver plastic with white plastic trim, which while less preferable than a metal alloy material still feels relatively well constructed. I do feel as though the glossy white trim detracts from and cheapens the design by some degree. It sort of looks like the designers were going for an iPod aesthetic but it just doesn’t work in this case. The trim does break of the visual mass of what might otherwise be large portions of the enclosure, however when the laptop is closed I think the striping effect may cause it to look a bit thicker.

The keyboard provides good tactile feedback and is easy to type on, although a few times I have been thrown off by the placement of the page up/down cluster, which is separated from the arrow keys. There is no numeric keypad, although you can hit Num Lock and hold down Fn to use a cluster of the regular keyboard as a numeric keypad instead (good luck getting that to be anything but completely awkward, though). Excessive heat underneath the spot where one’s wrists rest while typing does not seem to be a problem.

The touch pad seems to work well for the most part, although I almost always use a small USB wireless mouse instead. The vertical scroll section on the right edge is a nice touch and feels very natural to use, although I question the value of dedicating the real estate for a horizontal scroll counterpart on the bottom.

An attractive round power button is centrally located above the keyboard, with the standard caps lock, scroll lock and num lock indicators on a small panel to the left. These indicators are joined by indictors for the wireless network interface and Bluetooth, both of which I presume to mean that the interfaces are powered on but not necessarily connected. These indicators could be helpful in terms of power management. I would have liked to see a wireless on/off hard key, however–instead, Dell provides a soft key control for the wireless (Fn+F2). Unfortunately, in my experiments I have not been able to get that control to work until the Windows logon screen appears. In most cases this wouldn’t be a problem, but a hard key without dependence on Windows drivers would be preferable on airplanes and in other environments in which it’s important for the wireless receiver to always be turned off.

A set of media buttons are present on the front bezel between the speaker grilles, and are accessible even when the laptop is closed (I suppose this is so that you can use the Latitude as a gigantic iPod?). They look good for the most part, although the icon for the leftmost button, mute, is badly designed and unclear. What’s more, the volume control and mute buttons don’t appear to work until after Windows has already started and you’ve logged in, which doesn’t help if you’re trying to suppress the initial Windows startup sound. Fortunately, an alternate method of muting (Fn+End) does seem to work at the login screen (before the Windows sound plays). This was surprising to me, since it implies that the hard keys are more reliant on Windows than the soft controls.

I should note that the observations above about the wireless and sound controls were made after I had already reinstalled Windows. Although I’m pretty sure that I properly reinstalled all the Dell device drivers, it’s still possible that the controls would behave differently on a stock Dell installation.

The various I/O ports on the sides and back of the machine seem generally well placed. I appreciate the fact that there are two separate pairs of USB ports, one on the back and another on the right, since many USB peripherals (keychain drives, mouse dongles, etc.) block the adjacent port when plugged in.

There is a complete absence of legacy ports (serial, parallel, and PS/2), which helps to reduce clutter and eliminates the need for one of those flimsy rear port doors. This lack of legacy ports may need to be taken into consideration by those expecting to be able to use older peripherals, machinery and engineering equipment, however–for example, I’m not going to be able to connect directly to our 3D scanner and some CNC equipment at school, which still use serial RS-232 connections despite being recently manufactured.

The high-resolution screen, as I mentioned earlier, is beautiful. The whites are whiter than my (cheap) desktop LCD monitor, and brightness seems relatively good when running off wall power. The screen’s surface falls in between my previous laptop’s glare-reducing matte finish and the ultra-glossy screens found on newer Toshibas. Text and graphics are visible from a wide degree of angles. I have not yet tried to use the machine outside, but I don’t expect good contrast in sunlight since that is an inherent caveat to TFT technology.

Performance

I’m going to leave the hardcore benchmarking and battery timing stuff to other reviews; suffice it to say that performance is quite sufficient for the CAD and graphics tasks for which I bought this machine. SolidWorks, the Adobe CS2 suite, and Office all seem to run well. I ordered the least expensive 512MB configuration because Dell seems to overcharge for RAM, and I’m planning to swap out one of the 256MB sticks for a 1GB stick from Newegg.

I did install World of Warcraft and tried the 1920×1200 display mode, which looked beautiful but was a bit sluggish–by no means a slideshow, however. A lower resolution widescreen mode (1280×800, I think) still looks very good and runs smoothly. Normally I don’t like to run games at anything but an LCD monitor’s native resolution, but the WUXGA screen’s DPI is so high that I hardly notice that the image is being scaled up.

Conclusions

Pros:

• Industrial design is a step up from the plain black Dell notebook, although the white trim detracts somewhat
• Well organized and uncluttered I/O ports
• Dell Resource CD makes it easy to install device drivers after reinstalling Windows
• Quiet and efficient cooling system avoids hot-spots under palms
• Beautiful, high-resolution WUXGA display available as an inexpensive upgrade

Cons

• Amount of bloatware crap installed by default verges on comical; reinstalling Windows is imperative
• Wireless interface and mute/volume controls appear to rely on Windows drivers
• No legacy ports, which is really only an issue if you need to attach to certain types of equipment and can be considered a plus otherwise

Finally, I should note that I got a good amount of useful information both before and after my purchase on the NotebookReview.com Dell forum. There seem to be some well-informed folks there who respond to questions patiently and quickly. NotebookReview also has a Dell coupons page, which can save you quite a bit if there happens to be a good one available.

I’ll post a review when the unit arrives in a couple weeks.