Dell Laptop Alert: Major Battery Recall Announced

Dell today announced that in cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, it is recalling 4.1 million Dell-branded lithium-ion notebook batteries with cells manufactured by Sony. A press release just issued by the company states that "under rare conditions, it is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could cause the risk of fire." Customers may continue to use the laptop computers safely by turning the system off, ejecting the battery, and using the AC adapter and power cord to power the system until the replacement battery is received, the company said.

Dell provided the batteries in question with certain notebooks, in addition to selling them separately between April 1, 2004 and July 18, 2006. Affected batteries have the words "Dell" followed by "Battery Cell Made in Japan Assembled in China" or "Made in Japan/China" printed on them.

Each battery has a white sticker with an identification number and Dell is asking customers to quote this when calling to determine if a battery is part of the recall.

Affected Models
Latitude series: D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810

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

Precision series: M20, M60, M60, M70, M90

XPS series: Gen2, M170, M1710

More Information
Dell's recall site (launches at 1 a.m. Central Daylight Savings Time)

Here is the IDG News Service story on the announcement.

PC World is following this breaking story closely and will report more details as they come to hand.

And here are photos of more of the batteries in question and the full announcement by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.