Delayed Vostro 1710 shipment

I ordered a top-of-the-line Vostro 1710 for my best friend, because he wanted to get an XP notebook while they were still shipping.
They had originally promised to ship today, but they just sent an Email delaying it until July 3rd (and offering to let us cancel, but we're not gonna do that).

Anyone else having shipping delays on Dells? Could it be because of the last-minute rush to buy XP?

Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, 2.5GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 6M L2 Cache
17.0 inch Widescreen WUXGA display with TrueLife
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 DIMM
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS Graphics
250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Genuine Windows XP Home Edition
8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability
Integrated High Definition Audio 2.0
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card
Integrated 1.3 Mega Pixel Webcam and Digital Microphone
58 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for Vostro 1710
Dell Wireless 360 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR), XP

 

How long have you been waiting for your 1710? I got mine in 17 days with no delays when I ordered it last month with XP.

 

It has been 17 days... today.

 

Its called a shortage of parts.

 

Mainly the battery. That fire really did quite a number on the world shipments of notebooks

 

Thanks. It would be nice if it goes out on the revised ship date... but it's not even my laptop. I'm doing this job for my best friend, and I want it to be as perfect as possible.
I used to design XP Pro images and build processes for a consulting firm before I "retired;" tens of thousands of my builds are still running worldwide.

I will boot to Windows PE, copy off the Drivers folder, and grab a Ghost image of the drive as-shipped before I turn it on.
Then, I'll do an unattended script build of XP Pro, with SP3 slipstreamed in, from a USB hard drive.
I'm going to integrate the OEM drivers into the build folder, shooting for a clean Device Manager on first boot.

When I get that right, I'll burn the source and configuration files to a DVD so I won't need to re-create it a few years down the road.