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8/16/2006 Wednesday: Dell has released a bulletin warning their laptop owners of possible battery overheating or fire. This is a recall involving about 4.1 million batteries worldwide and several million in the States.

All Dell laptop models are involved (i.e., Inspiron, Latitude, XPS and Precision) and the years in question go back to units shipped as early as 1 April 2004 and up to units shipped 18 July 2006.

To determine if you are affected, you can go to the Dell site https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com and follow the instructions. Alternatively, you can bring your laptop to AIS for status determination. Until you can determine the safety of your battery, I would strongly advise you to use your Dell laptop ONLY with the AC power adapter (i.e., remove the battery)

Right now, this recall involves just Dell laptops. However, the batteries in question are made by a third party, so conceivably they may be found in other manufacturer's laptops. Although only Dell has made a recall announcement, it is probably a good idea, then, to be vigilant and not leave your laptop unattended on battery power until the extent of the problem is better known.