Dell Computer has discovered a firmware bug that slows down the performance of its Axim X5 handheld, and has halted shipments of the PDA until it is fixed.
The bug, discovered and tested by Axim enthusiasts, concerns the performance of the handheld when users upgraded it to Windows Mobile 2003, an incremental OS upgrade.
The issue caused the PDA to spend more resources than it needed caching data, reducing the number of resources available to the device, according to a Dell spokesman. Users have experienced slowdowns when running certain applications, he said.
“Weve got a root cause and were working on a fix now,” the spokesman said.
Dell is still taking orders for the device, but the company wont ship products until the issue is resolved. The spokesman said he didnt have a good idea of when the bug would be fixed. The issue is tied to Dell and its firmware, not the Windows Mobile 2003 OS, the spokesman confirmed.
“This is the kind of thing that will likely be a software download type of thing” to fix, the Dell spokesman said.
Only the Axim X5 is affected, the Dell spokesman added.