Dell Issues Laptop Battery Recall 170
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."
Web site to check your laptop (Score:5, Informative)
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:Web site to check your laptop (Score:5, Informative)
(emphasis added)
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)
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.
No, actually it's new (again) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bah (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Sony Batteries (Score:2, Informative)
See the comment here:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1940
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. :-)
Re:Sony Batteries (Score:2, Informative)
I think that's a yes.
also here [ucdavis.edu] shows that sony batts have been problematic before. I also remember a recall (3+ years ago) for sony camcorders due a battery leakage. One cam apparently caught fire.
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
recall.
In order to verify your battery serial number, and
get one sent to you, go to:
https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/Default.aspx [dellbatteryprogram.com]
Re:How To Check / What To Do (Score:3, Informative)
Rig one up with a big fat deep cycle RV or motorhome battery in the trunk and an eBay solar panel on top of your vehicle and you can have transportable reserve 120v AC power wherever you go without needing to pull it off the grid.
ValuJet Flight 592 (Score:3, Informative)
While I agree with you in principle, they have been negligent here even though they are not the only ones to have these battery problems, but let's still be a little fair to Dell. If I recall correctly the ValuJet Flight 592 crash was due to ValuJet management outsourcing work to a maintenance contractor that was cheap (and contrary to popular management dogma cheap!=good, especially in the airline business). The contractor improperly secured a batch of chemical oxygen generators and placed them in the aircraft's cargo hold which caused the fire. While it's a good example of the hazards of in-flight fires the ValuJet crash was not Dell's fault.
Re:Assault and Battery (Score:2, Informative)
holy shit I only just now realized that the paragraph tag is allowed!
Man, you wouldn't believe how many times I'd be Previewing my post just so I wouldn't look like a re-re. I'm saying this in all seriousness right now but thank you for cluing me in to the wonderful world of anglyBracket P slashAnglyBracket. And I for one welcome my new Allowed HTML knowledgeable overlord. To anwser your question though, sometimes it's good to space the comment out so that more people will see it, makes karma whoring that much easier, I know this by experience