Recently computer giant Dell has decided to recall over 22,000 laptop computers because of defective laptop batteries. If you haven’t seen the stories on the news the pictures are horrifying. Some of the laptops have holes straight through the bottom, others are so destroyed that it is hard to tell that they were ever even laptops to begin with.
If you own a Dell laptop the laptops recalled are: Latitude™ D410, D505, D510, D600, D610, D800, D810; Inspiron™ 510M, 600M, 6000, 8600, 9200, 9300, XPS Gen 2; and Dell Precision™ M20 and M70 mobile workstations. On the bottom of the effected batteries “Dell”, “Made in Japan”, or “Made in China” will be stamped, with the identification number for the battery appearing to be a white sticker. You can check the exact battery number on your battery and determine if it is effected by visiting this website.
The laptop batteries, sold between October 2004 and October 2005 have a tendency to overheat and can be a fire hazard.
This isn’t the first time exploding batteries have been in the news. I’m personally curious how likely it is for lithium batteries in general to explode or catch on fire, and why defective batteries in mass qualities are ever able to go out on store shelves. I can’t even imagine what I would do if my trusty powerbook were to suddenly go up in flames. What would you do? Besides loosing an incredible amount of important information that I store on my computer, all of my music, and some video files, I think I would be permanently traumatized by the event.
If you think you have one of the batteries affected in the recall you can contact Dell at (866)342-0011, or visit Dells Website to receive a free replacement battery at no charge.