Rather than a blue screen of death, Dell's (NASDAQ:DELL) long-feared restatement of earnings after an SEC-mandated review turned out to be a minor $150 million bug in the system. The company announced yesterday that it is restating earnings from 2003-2006, resulting in a decrease of $50-150 million total, or 2 to 7 cents per share. The hit represents a 1.4% drop in net income.

According to the independent review of more than five million documents, the irregularities were a result of too-eager executives shuffling income and expenses, especially accrued liabilities, to achieve certain financial goals.

The issue is not over, though. A couple of troubling aspects are still to be resolved or explained. In the announcement, the company states that "The investigation found evidence that, in that timeframe, account balances were reviewed, sometimes at the request or with the knowledge of senior executives, with the goal of seeking adjustments so that quarterly performance objectives could be met." The report did not name these culprits, but they may become whipping boys and girls in the SEC's ongoing investigation.

The report also states that, "Many of the adjustments offset each other during the restatement period," meaning that quarter-to-quarter reports could have been off a great deal more, thereby skewing Dell stock market price performance. For example, the impact on the stock price due to missing quarterly projections in a down market could be greater than in an up market.

While investors can be comforted by the relatively small impact of this restatement, the SEC investigation could still offer some interesting and entertaining insights.