Dell's recall of 4.1 million fire-prone laptop batteries takes
the heat off the company for now, but a former Dell technician says
Dell has known about the problem for more than two years.
Robert Day, Dell's lead acoustic technician from 1997-2005, said
the computer company received hundreds of laptops that were charred
or melted as a result of the defective battery, which Dell is now
recalling.
Day shared hundreds of photos of laptops with ConsumerAffairs.Com
that he downloaded prior to leaving the company in January 2005.
His lab was next to the Product Safety Investigations lab
(PSI).
Day says Dell tried to hide the problem from the public for years.
"They didn't want anyone to know how serious of a problem it was,"
Day said.
The photos are from one of PSI's technician's archives. By 2005
there were 14 technicians in that lab.
The findings of each lab, including the PSI, were submitted monthly
to executives, so Day said there is no way many of the senior
executives at Dell have not known about this problem for
years.
He said after Dell started using the Sony batteries in 2003, the
PSI started receiving so many charred laptops that Day's lab,
located next to the PSI, had to store many of the laptops.
Day said he didn't know how many charred laptops Dell received as a
result of the batteries, but said it was, "in the hundreds."
Day sent ConsumerAffairs.Com over 300 photographs of about 100
different laptops. It appears that about 12 of those melted laptops
were the result of the battery while the rest were from various
other electrical shorts and CPU fan failures. He said there were
many more battery-burned laptops than that, but he only had access
to one technician's archives.
Day now works as a technician for Apple and said he left Dell after
he turned in a Dell executive involved in a sex scandal. Dell did
not return two phone calls.
Source:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/08/dell_batteries_history.html
A published report says Dell might have known about a problem
regarding overheating laptop batteries at least two years before
the computer goliath issued a safety recall. The company denies
it.
A person identified as an anonymous Dell insider leaked scores of
documents to CRN, a computer industry publication, that indicated
Dell knew of a dangerous battery malfunction for two years before a
shocking video of an exploding laptop forced the company to recall
batteries for about 22,000 laptops.
The source told CRN that the documentation, which included
photographs of charred and melted laptops, was distributed to Dell
executives years ago.
The documentation showed the following:
One notebook was charred black for several inches on the bottom
corner of the unit, about one-half inch from the system fan;
Another notebook with a two-inch hole showing where a section of
case had melted away, charred black and brown on the bottom of the
unit, on the side, about half-way between the fan and the
battery;
More than a dozen notebooks where an inch or two of casing had
melted away in the right-hand corner above the keyboard and just
below the LCD;
One system that was melted, mangled and charred black on the
bottom corner of a notebook;
More than one notebook with black charring around the Ethernet
port;
Several units that had melted and warped in the area immediately
surrounding the cooling fan;
Several units that had melted or burned away in the area covering
and surrounding the laptop battery unit.
Despite the more than a dozen destroyed laptops mentioned above, in
the Dec. 16, 2005 recall, the Consumer Product Safety Commission
said, "Dell has received three reports of batteries overheating.
The incidents involved damage to a tabletop, a desktop, and minor
damage to personal effects. No injuries have been reported."
The ConsumerAffairs.Com database has only one instance of a Dell
laptop overheating.
"My laptop overheated enough to lightly burn my leg if not for
clothing," wrote George of Inverness, Fla. "I spoke to Dell on
several occasions and was told that nothing could be done because
the unit was out of warranty. The unit lasted just short of two
years after purchase before crashing."
Jess Blackburn, a Dell spokesman, would not say how many burned
laptops have been returned.
"Any notebook that's returned to us that would have some kind of
potential safety issue associated with it, gets not only our own
engineering review but also that of a third party review,"
Blackburn said.
Blackburn said he can't speak to the accuracy of the CRN article
because the author will not share the documentation from the
supposed insider.
"I think Ed (the author) was referencing a dozen notebooks over a
quarter in which we sold millions," Blackburn said. "But just
because they're rare doesn't mean we don't take them
seriously."
Consumers with Dell laptops can go to www.dellbatteryprogram.com to
see if their laptop is affected and how to get the new battery.
Source:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/07/dell_laptop_batteries.html
Thats it, I'm staying far away from Dell from now on, especially
their laptops 
