Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Dell to Issue Battery Recall

LATimes

Dell Inc., the world's largest computer maker, acknowledged Monday that it would recall 4.1 million notebook computer batteries because they can overheat and sometimes catch fire. It would be the largest recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry.

Dell's action will affect batteries in its notebooks sold between April 2004 and July 18, 2006. That includes 2.7 million battery packs sold in the U.S. and 1.4 million abroad.

The following notebook computers shipped between April 2004 and last month: Dell Latitude D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810.

Dell Inspiron 500m, 510m, 600m, 700m, 710m, 6000, 6400, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 9400, E1505, E1705.

Dell Precision M20, M60, M70, M90.

XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170 and XPS M1710.

The batteries also were sold separately for $60 to $180, including to customers on service calls. Dell said the notebooks could be safely used on an AC adapter if the battery is removed first.

I have one of the affected units, lucky me. I knew about the recall, but not the details, a coupla days ago, but I chanced across Dell's recall website this morning, and ordered a replacement. It only took a coupla minutes. Here it is:

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

If you think you've got one, go to the site and check. Do it now. There's enough of these things out there that they might run short of replacement batteries about ten minutes after less eagle-eyed folks than me, if there are any, find out about this.

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