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Dell Issues Laptop Battery Recall
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Mon Aug 14, 2006 09:57 PM
from the seat-warmers dept.
from the seat-warmers dept.
zoogies writes "The New York Times is reporting that Dell is now issuing a laptop battery recall — for notebooks sold between April 2004 and July 18, 2006. According to the article, 'The recalled batteries were used in 2.7 million computers sold in the United States and 1.4 million sold overseas. The total is about 18 percent of Dell's notebook production during the period in question.' This seems to go along with a June Slashdot story on an exploding Dell laptop, and a July Slashdot story on a Dell investigation into its exploding laptops. Curiously, there is nothing yet on Dell Support's product recall page about this latest recall."
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OMG DELL IS COPYING APPLE (Score:5, Funny)
Re:OMG DELL IS COPYING APPLE (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Assault and Battery (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/corporate
Given Apple's many battery woes, a recall on their part also seems likely if this is indeed the same battery batch/design.
On the other hand, this is yet another one the conspiracy theorists can blame on Sony (/tinfoilhat on)
Parent
Re:Assault and Battery (Score:5, Informative)
build partner for Apple's original PowerBook 5300 battery, which would have been the first mass-marketed laptop with an L-Ion battery.
Introduced in the fall of 1995, only about 1500 of the powerBook 5300 units had
shipped when the battery - again, designed and built by Sony -
caught fire in an Apple lab. A separate overheating incident at
Apple later that week caused the company to pull all the stops to
recall and destroy the Sony L-Ion cells. Customers all received two NiMH
batteries as compensation.
Apple's new flagship laptop started life with a misstep because
of Sony - who Apple never explicitly named in the press.
What's Sony's problem? Have they figured L-Ion batteries out in
the past 11 years? Apparently not. no word on whether UPS is going to seek damages from Sony/Dell for the cargo jet they suspect was lost to an L-Ion fire in February.
Parent
Hehe (Score:4, Funny)
Web site to check your laptop (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Web site to check your laptop (Score:5, Informative)
(emphasis added)
Parent
No, actually it's new (again) (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Sony Batteries (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sony Batteries (Score:4, Informative)
Problem is that companies like Apple and Dell probably have contract terms that stipulate a maximum (typical) expected failure rate above which the component manufacturer must cover some or all of the repair costs. While some of these costs will still probably be borne by Dell, odds are Sony will bear the brunt of the costs unless the folks at Dell are asleep at the switch.
If you have Sony stock, now would probably be a good time to sell some of it. :-)
Parent
Better to recall than to burn (Score:5, Insightful)
How To Check / What To Do (Score:5, Informative)
Customers should contact Dell to determine if their notebook computer battery is part of this recall. Please visit the firm's Web site at www.dellbatteryprogram.com [dellbatteryprogram.com] beginning at 1 a.m. Central Daylight Time Aug. 15 or call toll-free at 1-866-342-0011, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. Customers may continue to use the notebook computers safely by turning the system off, ejecting the battery, and using the AC adapter and power cord to power the system until the replacement battery is received. Customers can also write to: Dell Inc., Attn: Battery Recall, 9701 Metric Blvd., Austin, Texas 78758.
Re:How To Check / What To Do (Score:3, Interesting)
Getting rid of that useless battery saves tons of weight (not that laptops are heavy these days), but they also save a lot of heat on y
Re:How To Check / What To Do (Score:3, Informative)
Rig one up with a big fat deep cycle RV or moto
How to check, serial number, and the URL (Score:3, Informative)
1K055 C5340 D6024 JD616 U5867 X5333 3K590
C5446 D6025 JD617 U5882 X5875 59474 C6269
F2100 KD494 W5915 X5877 6P922 C6270 F5132
M3006 X5308 Y1333 C2603 D2961 GD785 RD857
X5329 Y4500 C5339 D5555 H3191 TD349 X5332
Y5466
The bottom or side of the dell battery will have
a serial number in the form of:
JP-111111-22222-333-4444
You should look for the number in the [111111]
section -- e.g.
JP-A1K055-22222-333-4444
Tesla Roadster (Score:5, Funny)
Naah, who am I kidding? I'd still give my left kidney for one. Flames are great, maybe we could channel them out the tail like the old Batmobile.
My dell experience (Score:3, Funny)
People say that linux is ready for the desktop, but when is it ready to stop killing children?
from report (Score:4, Interesting)
From the Article (Score:4, Interesting)
This leads me to wonder if some of the MacBook Pro batteries were made by Sony.
I Asked the Dell Support Forums (Score:4, Funny)
. . . and a moderator told me to format my C: drive and re-load Windows XP.
</sarcasm>
Seeing what you want to see (Score:4, Insightful)
On the face of it, it's simply a "large company recalls large number of items after small (relatively) number of incidents" story.
But look at all the Dell, Sony, Apple, etc. etc. conspiracy theorists and wingnuts come out of the woodwork! So much blaming, everyone certain that their already pre-selected villain company is trying to end civilisation as we know it.
Come on, people. This is News for Nerds. It's not News for Mouthbreathers, although sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
Batteries have been causing fires forever. Even the old D-cells you stick in your torch will self-immolate given the right conditions. Think about it. Acid. Metal. Electricity. It's not amazing there are fires, it's amazing there are so few. Laptops have been catching on fire since the very first luggables rolled off the line at Compaq, IBM, etc.
So let's just keep this in perspective. If you want to jump up and down about unsafe products, then go nuts about SUVs. Oh, and don't think that starting your post "I used to like Company X but now..." makes you any more of an intellectual and any less of a wingnut. Just read the numbers again. How many batts recalled? And how many incidents again? Jeez... Move on, nothing to see here...
Former Dell tech a Wingnut? (Score:5, Insightful)
look at all the Dell, Sony, Apple, etc. etc. conspiracy theorists and wingnuts come out of the woodwork!
Wingnuts like former Dell tech, Robert Day? Did you read the article? You might have caught this little piece:
Although Dell told the agency that only six incidents had occurred, a reporter viewed almost 100 photos of melted notebooks that were returned to the company from 2002 to 2004. The photos, from a Dell database, were supplied by a former Dell technician, Robert Day, who said such damage was more of a common thing than they are letting on. As many as several hundred a year were returned. Mr. Day said, I did see so many pallets of stuff coming in that they had to use my lab for overflow storage.
Did you also catch the little bit about FIVE previous battery fires on airplanes in the last two years? One in a UPS jet destroyed the plane after landing. One had to be chucked out before take off. The other three FAA cases were not so interesting, except for the fact that smoking batteries now placed in cargo holds will take the plane down instead of being contained because the Department of Homeland Security is saving us all from exploding laptops. Do some research on the gruesome details of the ValueJet crash sometime. It was caused by a fire in the cargo hold and people were really outraged at the that someone would put an obvious fire risk down in the cargo.
If you want to jump up and down about unsafe products, then go nuts about SUVs.
That's a good idea too, but it has nothing to do with the issue, which is an obviously flawed product being sold for two years. SUVs do not have such obvious flaws for the most part and when they do, a recall happens.
Perspective is that no one's life is less important than company profits and you will get caught. When there's a clear problem, like hundreds of melted laptops a year, you need to act. The problem is not going to go away until it's fixed. When a third party does something as simple as taking an xray to identify your problem for you, you look very bad.
The story was well researched and things look very bad for both Dell and Sony here. The recall is a good idea but it sounds like it's coming a year late. It will take care of 4.1 million fire hazards.
Parent
Web enabled cat... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, so long as it doesn't explode (I haven't heard of any exploding cats), then we will both be happy.
Re:Dude! (Score:4, Funny)
Now, why did I first read that as "Dude, you bought a bong!" ?
Soko
Parent
Re:Dude! (Score:4, Funny)
Because you've been hanging around the stoner Dell guy too long?
Parent