Dell accused of selling defective notebooks -
again
Motherboards conveniently go kaput after warranty
expires
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
Published Friday 12th January 2007 21:50 GMT
A lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court alleges that Dell
notebooks suffer from design defects that cause premature failure
of the motherboard due to overheating.
The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed on behalf of
an Ontario owner of an Inspiron PC, according to articles by the
Canadian Press and the Associated Press. It claims that Dell knew
or should have known of the defects but sold the notebooks
anyway.
The suit applies to the 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 or 5160 models of
the Inspiron. Dell settled a similar US lawsuit over one of the
models and is defending itself against lawsuits over the other
four, according to the Associated Press.
The lawsuit claims that the overheating problems often happen
shortly after a one-year warranty expires.
Last year, Dell recalled more than four million laptop batteries
made by Sony because they overheated and ran the risk of catching
fire. The Ontario suit, which was announced Friday, is unrelated to
the Sony battery problems. The overheating problem described in the
action do not appear to cause fires or injuries.
"It would appear as though it's a systemic problem that's inherent
to all of these Inspiron models, Joel Rochon, a partner at Rochon
Genova, told the CP.
A Dell spokeswoman told the CP the company doesn't comment on
pending lawsuits.
