Dell Issues Laptop Battery Recall

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."

Comments

Web site to check your laptop

[Ctrl-Z]

Dell has set up a website at http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com to check your laptop model.

Re:Web site to check your laptop

[Ctrl-Z]

That may be, but this paragraph makes me think that it has been updated:

In addition, these batteries may have also been provided in response to service calls. The batteries were shipped to customers between April 1, 2004 and July 18, 2006. The words "DELL" and "Made in Japan" or "Made in China" or "Battery cell made in Japan, Assembled in China" are printed on the back of the batteries. If your battery does not reflect one of these markings it is not part of this recall, and you may exit the site.

(emphasis added)

How To Check / What To Do

[brunes69]

From the official Dell press release....

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 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

[aussersterne]

You don't need a new car to get a 120v outlet, stop into any truckstop on a major highway and you can get a little box that will plug into your cigarette lighter and give you a 150-200w 120v outlet (enough for nearly any laptop) and it will only cost you $25 or so. They've been around for years, and can be used for other things, too. Running off your car battery you can watch a couple of DVDs and still have enough juice to start your car with no trouble at all.

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.

Assault and Battery

[Ruff_ilb]

Actually, Apple is involved just as much as Dell is. The same division of Sony that manufactured these batteries for Dell also produced many batteries for Apple laptops. Although the issue has already been brought up to Apple, they haven't said whether or not they're going to recall as well, merely saying that they would "look into" the issue.

(http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/corporaten ews/view/224917/1/.html)

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

[vought]

Sony was the designer and
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.

Re:Assault and Battery

[AcidLacedPenguiN]

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

No, actually it's new (again)

[dereference]

See Dell's official announcement here, where it says:

Please visit the firm's Web site at www.dellbatteryprogram.com beginning at 1 a.m. Central Daylight Time Aug. 15

The CPSC page is somewhat less informative.

Re:Bah

[SEMW]

Sadly, the video's a fake. See http://www.badscience.net/?p=261

Re:Sony Batteries

[Ruff_ilb]

You are correct about other vendors using these batteries, apple included.

See the comment here:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=19403 4&cid=15907866

Re:Sony Batteries

[dgatwood]

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

[dartarrow]

from TFA: The safety agency said the batteries were not unique to Dell, meaning that other companies using Sony batteries may also have to issue recalls. Sony has sold its batteries to most of the major computer makers.

I think that's a yes.

also here 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

[martinbogo]

Dell batteries subject to the recall :

  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 .. would be an example of a battery subject to the
recall.

In order to verify your battery serial number, and
get one sent to you, go to:

https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/Default.aspx

ValuJet Flight 592

[Savage-Rabbit]

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.

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.