Dell accused of selling defective notebooks - again

Dell accused of selling defective notebooks - again

Motherboards conveniently go kaput after warranty expires

A lawsuit filed in Ontario ,PCGA-BP2R, PCGA-BP2S, PCGA-BP2T, PCGA-BP2V, PCGA-BP4V,Superior ,Sony laptop battery,Court alleges that Dell notebooks suffer from design defects that cause premature failure of the motherboard due to overheating.

The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed on behalf of an Ontario owner of an Inspiron PC, according to articles by the Canadian Press and the Associated Press. It claims that Dell knew or should have known of the defects but sold the notebooks anyway.

The suit applies to the 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 or 5160 models of the Inspiron. Dell settled a similar US lawsuit over one of the models and is defending itself against lawsuits over the other four, according to the Associated Press.

PCGA-BP2R, PCGA-BP2S, PCGA-BP2T, PCGA-BP2V, PCGA-BP4V,

The lawsuit claims that the overheating problems often happen shortly after a one-year warranty expires.

Last year, Dell recalled more than four million laptop batteries made by Sony because they overheated and ran the risk of catching fire. PCGA-BP2R,,The Ontario suit, which was announced Friday, is unrelated to the Sony battery problems. The overheating problem described in the action do not appear to cause fires or injuries.

"It would appear as though it's a systemic problem that's inherent to all of these Inspiron models, PCGA-BP2R, PCGA-BP2S, PCGA-BP2T, PCGA-BP2V, PCGA-BP4V,Joel Rochon, a partner at Rochon Genova, told the CP.

A Dell spokeswoman told the CP the company doesn't comment on pending lawsuits.

Panasonic pitches 'safe' lithium-ion laptop battery

Contains 'thermally resilient' layer

Panasonic parent Matsushita today announced what it claims is a "safe" lithium-ion rechargeable battery.PCGA-BP2S, The secret: inserting a layer of heat-resistant insulating material to prevent fire-starting internal short-circuits of the kind that ignited a number of notebooks this year.

Typical lithium-ion batteries embed the positively charged anode and the negatively charged cathode in power-generating chemicals separated by a polyolephine plastic barrier. That, said Matsushita, isn't sufficient to prevent short-circuits and the build up of heat that can lead to the explosive destruction of a battery.

Inserting a layer of insulated metallic oxide, however, does provide just such a barrier, the company said.

The lithium-ion battery was commercialised by Sony in the early 1990s following almost two decades of development work. Ironically,PCGA-BP2T, it was Sony batteries that caused the spate of laptop fires over the past 12 months or so which culminated in Dell and Apple separately recalling a total of more than 6m batteries. Toshiba, Lenovo and IBM soon followed suit, and shortly afterward Sony said it would support any other of its PC vendor customers who chose to implement recalls.

Matsushita's "safe" battery is a cylindrical, 2.9Ah unit designed to by combined into so-called 'three-cell' and 'six-cell' battery packs for use in notebooks

NEC recalls fire-risk desktop PCs
PCGA-BP2R, PCGA-BP2S, PCGA-BP2T, PCGA-BP2V, PCGA-BP4V,
Almost 15,000 machines affected

NEC Japan has asked anyone who bought in a Valuestar H all-in-one desktop PC manufactured between November 2003 and June 2004 to contact the company for a free replacement after two of the machines caught fire, the company said today.PCGA-BP2V,

The machines are believed to have contained faulty power supply units which produced sparked to produce smoke and flames. No one was injured, it appears. However, to prevent such an outcome, NEC said it would replace machines potentially containing the same PSU.

The recall covers models PC-HV3007A and PC-VG11NWZEF, the latter sold exclusively through NEC's Japanese online store. The model numbers are displayed on the back of the Valuestar's display unit, and NEC urged all owners to check their machines to see whether they are due a replacement, even if they use their computers only occasionally.

PCGA-BP2R, PCGA-BP2S, PCGA-BP2T, PCGA-BP2V, PCGA-BP4V,

According to a Reuters report, some 14,600 such PCs shipped in Japan. NEC has yet to put a figure on the,PCGA-BP4V, cost of replacing the machines