According to documents the plaintiffs obtained from , Ballmer talked with , the CEO of Intel, and presumably with Mark Hurd, the chief executive of HP, about Vista Capable concerns.

Hurd had e-mailed Ballmer on Feb. 6, 2007, just days after Vista launched, to tell him, "Our call lines are being overrun" with customers complaining about troubles upgrading to Vista. "I'm sure you're aware of this," Hurd added in the e-mail, which was quoted in a motion by the plaintiffs.

But much of the motion -- which opposed Microsoft's request last month to -- was given over to discussion of the telephone conversation Ballmer had with Otellini in late January 2006, during the time that over the Vista Capable campaign and a requirement that would have excluded PCs using the company's 915 integrated graphics chipset.

"Despite the near panic atmosphere within Intel at the time, Microsoft would have the court believe that the telephone call between CEO Paul Otellini and amounted to nothing more than a 'courtesy call,'" the motion said. "But this was not a spur-of-the-moment interaction between the two CEOs. Mr. Otellini had been planning the call for a week or more and insisted on making it happen to 'close the deal.'"

The plaintiffs' lawyers argued that Ballmer's testimony was crucial to their clients' case.