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MPC Computers Shutting Down
Posted by
kdawson
on Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:44 AM
from the 17-year-run dept.
from the 17-year-run dept.
davidphogan74 writes "MPC Computers (formerly Micron's computer division) notified the Idaho Department of Labor in a letter on 12/29/2008 that it would terminate its remaining employees. The company had been operating under the protection of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy since November, after it laid off 200 employees in October. MPC said 147 employees would be terminated immediately and 51 would be retained while the company liquidates its assets. Last year, MPC bought the professional business unit of PC company Gateway, which itself had been bought by Acer earlier that year. MPC had sold business technology hardware to mid-sized business, government agencies, and education organizations since 1991."
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RIP Micron (Score:3, Informative)
Micron always made rock solid, good performing machines. They even had a high-tech name. Anyone know why they failed?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
They only appealed to an elitist community.
Re:RIP Micron (Score:5, Funny)
Apple is doing well.
I Keed. I Keed, I love my MBP.
Parent
Re:RIP Micron (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe. For me, the appeal was a rock solid office machine. I still have a Pentium II server I put in place for a business about 10 years ago, running Novell 3.1. They got over 7 years of service from that machine without issue. Sure, had to replace a hard drive but that's to be expected. I booted it up about a month ago to retrieve some data from it and it still runs just fine. They also got 5-7 years out of the desktops. The only reason they were retired is that technology had just progressed so much and Novell didn't have the applications that Windows offered at the server level. I still have these businesses as my clients, in part because I put in solid equipment that lasted for as long as they wanted it. I'm sorry to see Micron go....
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not exactly difficult to build PCs that last. There's really just one component you have to not chintz on: the power supply. That's the one part that will fry your system if it's a no-name piece of garbage.
The fact that other PC vendors' systems fail so often and so brutally is almost always the result of weak unfiltered power supplies and thermal stress. A scary number of brand names build their PCs to boot, not to last. I have seen so much dumb shit while repairing/upgrading even brand new machin
Re:RIP Micron (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, I bet it's George Bush fault too!
Just like the lack of coffe in the machine this morning :/
Parent
Re:RIP Micron (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, I bet it's George Bush fault too!
Just like the lack of coffe in the machine this morning :/
Indeed! Unfortunately, neither your coffee machine nor Micron qualified for bailout money. :(
Parent
Re:RIP Micron (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Yup, cheap (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Take a look at their PROFIT share and you'll change your tune.
Re:Yup, cheap (Score:4, Insightful)
Ten percent of the whole computer market? Yeah, I'd call that doing well.
-jcr
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Who's micron?
Re:RIP Micron (Score:5, Informative)
Living in Boise, ID, maybe I can shed some light on this.
MPC has been steadily going downhill for a couple of years. I didn't work for MPC, but I had several customers who did. The gossip from them is a tale of outsourcing gone bad. MPC used to assemble PC's here in Idaho. A couple years ago, they outsourced most of the manufacturing overseas. Instead of building a new factory here, they built in China. All went well for awhile, then the quality started to slip. Companies stopped ordering. There wasn't enough money left to bring the manufacturing back to the states. Finally, the high oil prices of last year destroyed the profit margin they were making by outsourcing the manufacturing.
They have been in a death spiral ever since. They hoped to fix it by declaring Chapter 11 a couple months ago but that obviously didn't work.
*Disclaimer:
Please be aware that all my information is third hand and may not reflect other peoples experiences.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
outsourcing causing their death.
I take a wee bit of comfort in that, in a schadenfreude kinda way.
maybe others will learn from this? maybe sending work offshore is NOT always the best way to 'fix' things?
Re:RIP Micron (Score:5, Informative)
In my opinion the whole spiral started with Joel Kocher. When I started employment at MPC (was called MicronPC.com at the time) in early '00, they had a rock solid product, and were in the midst of transitioning to a PC and Internet hosting company. Kocher introduced a free bare-bones PC with a long-term Internet service contract.
Kocher was convinced the PC was dead and that hosting was the way to go. Up to that point Micron PC was known as the Cadillac of PCs, using good quality parts, a good non-bloatware system load, etc. Once this piece of cheapest-possible junk was introduced, the reputation of the company, as well as the internal focus on quality went out the window. All of the company effort was focused on expanding the hosting business at the expense of the hardware side of the business.
After a while Kocher spun off Hostpro and left the PC manufacturing side of the business to die. It was picked up by an investment group and was never able to fully recover. While I can't confirm it, rumor stated that the company could have turned around but the investment company siphoned off every cent of profit rather than re-investing it back into the business for long-term growth. Coupled with leadership that (I feel) were more interested in short-term balance sheets than long term success doomed the company to failure.
I was laid off in July of '06, and haven't looked back. I made it through more layoffs than I could count and the stress of wondering if I'd have a job every couple of months was horrible. The layoff that finally caught me was more of a relief than a concern. I should have looked for something else far prior to that but I was convinced the company could recover and then I'd be in a good position for advancement.
The way I see it the company has been floating for the last 6+ years, and someone finally decided to hit the flush handle. I have quite a few friends that were still employed there that have lost their jobs in the last month. Its a tough job market right now and this isn't going to make it any easier.
Parent
Re:RIP Micron (Score:5, Informative)
MPC made all PC's that had "Micron" written on them. That's because the "M" stood for "Micron."
"Micron Technology" (the semiconductor manufacturer) created MPC to handle the PC business aspect.
Parent
anybody else read it like me? (Score:2, Funny)
Come to think of it, I bet TRON caused a bunch of layoffs too. Gosh, that kinda makes the movie more of a bummer
Re: (Score:2)
Come to think of it, I bet TRON caused a bunch of layoffs too. Gosh, that kinda makes the movie more of a bummer :(
Didn't TRON and Flynn destroy the MCP and his monolithic ways to allows users access to their own programs again? Wouldn't this be more productive and have need for a bigger work force?
I may need to watch it again.
Re: (Score:2)
No, the MCP was then replaced with a BOFH who carried on in a similar fashion.
Ex-Gateway customer. (Score:2, Informative)
Well, this certainly makes me feel secure about the hundreds and hundreds of Gateway computers we've got at work. I'm sure warranty repair parts will be easily available.
*cough*
--saint
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We had been standardizing on Gateway E-2610D systems (made by MPC) for the last two years. Their a good system except I have had the on-board NIC die on a few of them. Now I have to re-spec for some other brand. It irks me but it will probably be HP as I no longer trust Dell (since an issue we had with a bunch of Optiplex boxes). Anyone know of a brand that offers the same motherboards/chipsets for a few years at a time? I want to be able to use as few images as possible to manage our machines.
Re: (Score:2)
Would that Optiplex issue be the bursting capacitors on the GX270?
I've had a handful of newer Optiplexen (620s IIRC) with dodgy power supplies, but (pulling a figure out of my butt) that's less than 5% of installed base, and Dell was good for quick replacements.
Re: (Score:2)
We had the cap issue as well but there was just some general flakiness of the hardware and some ps issues as well. Also Dell was a pain in the arse for getting the CAP issue taken care of.
Re: (Score:2)
I am actually working on specing out a dc5800 Microtower model. I think its probably what we will go with. I have experienced their home user line a few times and its horrid but I have heard good things about the business/enterprise lines. Another school near us has used them for a number of years with good results.
Kinda harsh... (Score:5, Funny)
I for one believe that firing the employees in question would be enough, instead of termination. Perhaps it'd even be cheaper choice.
Re: (Score:2)
No worries, the termination of expired human capital is fairly streamlined nowadays.
At first they make all but one employee jump off the building. The remaining employee will then clean up the mess and finally jump (along with the gore in a zipbag) into the crunch gears of a rented garbage truck.
Admittedly, the rental of that garbage truck (1 day) and those zipbags are still a cost factor but the they're working to optimize that further (experiments with paperbags are being carried out as we speak).
Re: (Score:2)
Nah, 50 ohm terminators are pretty cheap. Just stick one on the end...
Re: (Score:2)
Soo... MPC was this worlds CSC? [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
No, CSC [csc.com] is this world's CSC ;-)
This Explains Things (Score:2, Insightful)
This explains why my MPC salesperson didn't bug the crap out of me like other salespersons. I faxed in a P.O. in September but never heard from her again. Perhaps she'd been laid off early or quit. I wasn't worried about it because there were more critical items I was dealing with at the time. There's one contact I'll be deleting on Monday after Christmas break.
Re:This Explains Things (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Micron Quality (Score:3, Interesting)
Misleading Title is Misleading (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Misleading Title (Score:2)
Yeah, With it being a new year and all, I thought at first the computers themselves were shutting down a la Zune. Maybe "MPC Computers Going the Way of the Dodo" would have been a better title.
Terminate! Terminate! gaah! (Score:2)
Expected this, did a few of the warrenty repairs (Score:3, Interesting)
There was one case where they sent motherboard after motherboard. (5 in total) to a gateway customer. Looked like someone in shipping kept substituting the wrong board. Though how you could substitute an ATA interface laptop board with with a SATA interface and expect it to work is beyond me.
But that was their laptops, there servers were very solid and support was GREAT. Always got on the phone with an experienced techs. I just think they shouldn't of bought the Gateway stuff.
MPC didn't have a big foot print though. Its hard to be the little guy in a bit Dell/HP world. Hate to see them go.
MPC's Downfall Makes Me Smile (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
As long as he isn't in charge of parts requisitions for your desktop PC's you should be fine.
Re:MPC's Downfall Makes Me Smile (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
It's not like there's a shortage of well-trained IT-related folks around Boise. I don't see why you'd be happy that a company that was once Nampa's largest employer is now gone.
Re: (Score:2)
What? He found another job without a government bailout to prop up this industry?!
Absurd!
Gateway was the death of them (Score:5, Interesting)
We used MPC in a higher-ed setting quite consistently over Dell since they had better deals, more configuration options, and USA tech support.
Once they purchased Gateway however the service was horrible. Installing XP on a RAID-enabled SATA controller required the RAID drivers which Gateway/MPC techs refused to send to us. It took 10 minutes for them to find the system in the database and over an hour for one of their techs to scour their website for the proper driver.
MPC's only original 2 flaws were their oddly-interfaced website and their billing. You know how you get configuration errors if you have more cards than PCI slots? Well, their "default" configurations would always have a configuration error right off the bat. Things like that, plus poorly-updated tracking info made it useless.
And then their billing...I moved to a different department and therefore had a new purchasing card issued to me (and the old one canceled). 3 Months after a PC purchase I received a threatening e-mail from their accounts Receivable stating that the payment on the system was denied and that we'd better pay up now or go to court. A quick e-mail and a call with the new card number resolved things quickly, but waiting 3 months to bill for a system is a little odd.
MPC had a good thing going right up to that point (for the most part anyhow). The Gateway curse continues.
Bad Business Manners! (Score:4, Informative)
In the grand scheme of things.... (Score:3, Insightful)
this is like Michael Dell swatting a gnat.
MPC had been essentially non-player in the PC business for years, even after it's acquisition of the business unit of Gateway.
Not bad product, but really bad service (Score:2, Interesting)
My recollections of Micron (Score:4, Interesting)
I worked for Micron for a while. It has a somewhat confusing history. I was there in the mid-late 90's when it was called Micron Electronics. It was tethered to Micron Tech at that time (the memory maker). Micron Tech in hindsight did well to spin off Micron Electronics (MPC) in 2001.
Micron Electronics had previously acquired ZEOS computers along with a small groups of engineers from a little town in Minnesota that had expertise in chip design, specifically north bridge chips. It was these engineers that I worked with.
It was no secret that their strategy was to create performance/gaming PCs. They did that by going up against the Intels, VIAs, and SiSs in creating the fastest northbridge ICs for a given CPU. They also designed their own motherboards and extended the commercially-obtained BIOS to take advantage of features in their chipsets.
Even though they were based in Nampa, Idaho, they had significant operations in Minnesota (in fact all design was in Roseville, MN). Nampa had a larger workforce, but it was primarily production.
I'm somewhat sad that they folded, though I'll admit I haven't followed them for a while. My thoughts are that Dell/Alienware and the DIY market took away the high-end customers. Micron (Electronics) attempted to get into servers with the purchase of NetFrame in the 1997 timeframe. I don't think they ever got any real traction with those products, though.
R.I.P. ZEOS/Micron Electronics/Micron PC
Their tech support sucked (Score:3, Interesting)
I work in higher education. We've had a few MPC-Gateways (my area is mainly Dell, thank goodness, but other techs are not so lucky), and nearly every time we've needed support on a Gateway box, it's been terrible. I've had an incompatible drive sent to me, twice. They have refused to send me restore DVDs for in-warranty machines, when the restore partition failed[1]. It can be difficult to find the correct drivers on their website.
And now, we've got this then-expensive 22" widescreen monitor that went bad a couple months ago and is putatively still under warranty. Except now that they are bankrupt and dissolving, there is no warranty. We've got the money that he already bought a replacement, but that's a regular burr beneath my saddle that we paid for something which we'll never get.
[1] A problem because of said machines needing XP Tablet Edition, and us not having a site license nor media for that version.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm currently in that group. We had a shipment of 55 PCs that just came in last week, only to hear about the future of MPC on Monday. We now have a bunch of MPC and Gateway PCs that effectively have no warranty or support coverage.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Indeed, and now there is even a template now on how to do just that: [nwsource.com]