did you download the latest dell system software?

Dell Notebook System Software, v.3.1.1, A10
File Date: 3/5/2004

it says it has fixes for d/port and usb issues

Welcome to the club!

Thanks freonchill, I'll see if that helps.

I've run down 4 of our laptop users (alot of travellers here), and so far things look good on 3 of them. I also installed BIOS A11 on the first 3. The 4th however, is giving me trouble. It keeps saying that the battery and ac power both need to be in place before it will flash. They are. The battery is 100% charged, according to setup and by the green status lights on the battery. I've tried docked, and undocked, with both power bricks. Anyone seen this, or is this machine just a lemon?

Scratch that last question, I found the '/forceit' switch and that worked. Has me a little worried why I need this for some, but not all of this lot.

So far though, the combo of BIOS A11 and the latest Notebook Utils seems to help alot.

Another datapoint: Installing BIOS A11, by itself, doesn't do anything to help the problem. It seems to be the NB utils that work the magic. Which is great, except a few of our new D600's dual boot Redhat or Fedora, and I'm having trouble with those. I know from past experience that Dell isn't going to help here - so much for that RH-Dell synergy .