Here's a quick link to determine whether your batt is one of the recalled:
Dell Recall Serial Number Checker

BTW, I don't like Sony batts, they are low on my list of quality batts. Sanyo is high, Panasonic in the middle.

Thanks everyone for the information. Fortunately I don't have to exchange my battery...but I have always thought the Inspiron ran rather warm/hot.

I ordered mine from Dell's Website on Monday night and it arrived today. I was order number 628.

Your mileage may vary.

When you enter the number of the battery, don't use the letter "O" but rather all "0" (zeros). I almost thought I was not covered.

Hi PHXTraveler,

I got mine too this afternoon from BumbleBee Project. :)

I guess they learned to "UPOD" - underpromise and overdeliver.

Now the question is:

Do I go ahead and just put the new battery into my PC?


BTW, I almost missed the return instruction and postage hidden behind the packing foam.

I've got a recalled battery in my work machine. If you go to the Dell website, make sure you use a zero, not an "o" for the digits in the serial number. "o" returns it is OK, zero (0) - which is correct - returns it needs replacement.

This is actually the second battery for this 2.5 year old machine. The first died completly within about a year - would not hold any charge. The recalled one is probably about 18 months old and has been working fine. Can run up to three hours on battery at full screen brightness, with optical mouse, running a video projector.

I have a D600 and it does run hot on the left front (under your left palm) when it is docked, but is fine when running on battery or direct to a charger.

There is some information on CNET about the recall. There was a note in one of thier articles that there have been only six reports of damage to furniture and no injuries. It sounds like a bit of media frenzy to me.

How long until Dell laptops are banned from aircraft as potential IEDs?

We haven't had any fires at work, some of our laptops did have the initial suspect partial serial number, but when we typed in the full serial number all of our batteries were ok.

I ordered mine on Tuesday at 4pm Pacific and it arrived today (Thursday).

OK all you techies - got my new battery very quickly (btw - gotta love the Dell Supply Chain Management folks. Ordered Monday, arrived Friday).

Now the question - do we really know how much risk there is, or did I do I now have a spare for long flights?

My Latitude D600 runs warm, but around the drive, not under the battery

Cheers
GPG

They don't make you send the "bad" one back? I can't imagine that or they'd all be showing up on eBay...

There's nothing that I know of that requires them to be returned. They send a prepaid mailing thing to slap on the box and send it back, but I don't know if they're tracking returns. I hadn't thought of the eBay angle . . .

Whatever the risk, is it really worth it to take that risk for the small amount of money an extra battery would cost? Send that thing back like you're supposed to.

For one thing, sending it back makes sure that it doesn't end up in a landfill and won't end up in somebody else's hands that isn't aware of the risk.

Do the right thing.

-David

Ran my 700m serial number through when I got home from Canada this morning, and my Sony battery was on the recall list. I filled out the form on the web site and they will replace it within the next 20 days.

I imagine your insurance might deny the claim if a recalled battery caught fire.

Sent it back . . .

GPG

Not on Qantas
 

Safety first for carry-on Dells

Louisa Hearn
August 23, 2006

Qantas is issuing an advisory to all passengers on its flights on the safe use of Dell notebooks following the recall of 4.1 million batteries announced by the PC manufacturer last week.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/s...012601607.html