Dell recalls 4.1 million laptop batteries

Posted August 15, 2006 at 02:20 AM by Doug Berger

Section: Computers, Laptops, Accessories

After weeks of exploding laptop incidents, Dell has finally announced an official recall of 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries.  The recall, which is said to be “the largest safety recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry,“ is for specific models laptop batteries shipped between April 2004 and July 18, 2006.  As ironic as it is, the batteries were outsourced to Sony, so we can only blame Dell so much.  If you’re affected by the recall, Dell has set up the Dell Battery Replacement Hotline (1-866-342-0011) which will operate weekdays 6:00AM - 6:00PM, weekends 9:00AM - 6:00PM.  They’ve also set up www.dellbatteryprogram.com (which will be live around midnight central time tonight) so you can see if your battery is actually defective.  Alex Gruzen, Sr. VP of Dell’s Mobility Product Group offers a sincere apology on Dell’s official blog and combats expected criticism by saying “some might say we are being conservative and even overreacting in taking this broad action, but even one more incident is too many.“  Hey, 4.1 million out of 22 million ain’t that bad, is it?

Via [Direct2Dell] Read [NYTimes]