What to do about that huge Dell laptop battery recall

The recall of Sony-branded laptop batteries by Dell Computer is staggering in size, affecting 4.1 million Inspiron, Latitude and Precision brand computers sold since April 2004. This is the largest computer-related recall ever recorded by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
In terms of the big picture for Dell, the company claims the recalled batteries powered only about one out of every six of the total 22 million laptops sold in the time period.
Dell claims the costs of the recall will not materially affect its earnings.
Ha.
While Sony has promised to help Dell with the massive but still unreleased costs, this has to be seen as a huge hit on Dell’s reputation for reliability. And it’s going to seriously inconvenience a lot of people who won’t be able to use their laptops while waiting for a replacement battery unless they’re plugged into an AC connector.
The recall is because of an overheating issue that has caused some batteries to catch fire or explode. Dell has confirmed six cases that caused property damages.
So, if you have a Dell notebook, what do you do?
First, go to the Dell Web site www.dellbatteryprogram.com) and look over the lists of model numbers for the laptops and the codes printed on the back of the battery packs to see if you are affected. If yours is indeed one of the recalled batteries, remove it from the computer and follow the instructons on dell’s Web site about returning it.
Now here’s the important info, direct from Dell:“Batteries subject to recall should not be used while awaiting a replacement battery pack from Dell. You may continue to use your notebook computer using the AC adapter power cord originally provided with your notebook.”
While this is certainly the largest, it isn’t the only such problem Dell - and other computer manufacturers - have had with batteries in recent years.
For besides this recall of Sony-manufactured batteries by Dell, the company recalled about 22,000 of its notebook computers in December, 2005 for the same basic overheating danger. Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced a recall of some 15,700 HP and Compaq notebook computer batteries in April this year after 20 reports of batteries overheating; and Apple Computer recalled 128,000 batteries shipped in its PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 laptops in the spring of 2005.