Dell recalls laptop batteries

Dell has announced a recall of over 4 million laptop

batteries due to the risk of ‘overheating’.  As many who follow news within the IT

industry will know, the events which have prompted this recall can be described

as a little more serious than ‘overheating’—one example being this laptop

which burst in to flames at a conference in Japan!  This recall seems to have been prompted by

the fact that news spreads quickly over the internet, images of burned up Dell

laptop computers have become a pretty familiar site.  This however is not the first battery recall

Dell have run due to fire hazards; December 2005 saw 35,000 batteries recalled

and as far back as October

2000 just under 30,000 were pulled back in. 

To find out if your battery is included in the recall you should check

the Dell Battery Return Program

website.  I use a Dell XPS M170 laptop—this

is listed as a potentially affected model, however upon checking out the

aforementioned website it seems neither of my battery packs are included in the

recall; I’m still a little concerned and don’t think I’ll be using it on my lap

at all!