Quote:

Computer maker Dell Inc. is voluntarily recalling 4.1 million lithium batteries used in its notebook computers because of the danger they could overheat, possibly causing a fire, the company said Monday. The batteries, which were manufactured by Sony but carry the Dell brand, were sold with notebook computers from April 2004 through July 2006. Some of the recalled batteries also were sold individually as replacements, Dell said in a statement. "Under rare conditions, it is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could cause a risk of fire," the statement said. Dell models that are part of the recall include Latitude, Inspiron, Precision and XPS. The company has set up a toll-free hotline (1-866-342-0011) and a Web site (www.dellbatteryprogram.com) where customers can determine if their batteries are subject to the recall.

Source:  http://www.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/08/15/dell.recall/index.html

yeah, saw that.

that's a *lot* of batteries. wonder if it'll affect the price of their stock, or if it already did (any insider trading action?).

I'm sure the stock has already taken the hit.  Bloggers have been hammering stories of Dell laptops catching on fire for weeks.  I can post some links later if anyone is interested.

Look on the bright side  :).  There are a number of new marketing slogans that are now possible:

“Dell Sets Your World Ablaze”
“Fire Up Your PC, Fire Up Your House”
“Get a Pyre of Performance from Your Dell”
“Ignite Your Creativity with a Dell”
“Dell - Not Just Heat and Light, but Smoke, Too”

good chuckle.

yeah, linkage is always cool.

Here is a link to one of the stories that I was following.  Digg users have been posting similar stories for a few weeks now and Dell just finally admitted to it.

http://www.digg.com/hardware/Another_Dell_laptop_catches_fire

Here is another side of the same story posted in the Tom's Hardware forum:

http://community.tomshardware.com/dellpost.html?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=192887&ex=Dude-Dell-freaking-blew