NEW DELHI: Computer giant Dell has made a rather embarrassing admission -- that some units its ultrabooks smell like cat urine. However, the company says that the smell is "not in any way related to biological contamination" or a health hazard.
The company made the admission came after a number Dell users complained that their Latitude 6430u Ultrabooks "smell of cat urine".
A user by the name Three West on Dell Community was to the first to complain that his new Latitude 6430u ultrabook emanated smell of cat urine. He posted: "The machine is great, but it smells as if it was assembled near a tomcats litter box. It is truly awful! It seems to be coming from the keyboard."
His concern was echoed by several other buyers of the same model, who complained that the smell was coming from the keyboard. They said that the smell remained even after the keyboard, palm-rest, motherboard and other components had been replaced. Some users even had their ultrabook replaced, but the unpleasant smell was present in the new models as well.
Dell asked users to clean the air vents of the ultrabook with compressed air, though this was debunked by a community member named Malioz. He posted on the forum:
"Definitely this problem has nothing to do with air vents. I know little bit about plastics and I am quite sure that the problem is originated from the polymer used in the case of the laptop (top, buttom, keypad & palmrest). This polymer is mixed & molded with special additives and plastifiers (to accomodate the soft touch affect). Some of those chemicals are now migrating to the surface and creating this awful odour."
Dell community moderators posted that they were analyzing one of the affected units and found that the issue lay with the manufacturing process. They posted: "For everyone who currently has an E6430u affected by the issue, it's going to require replacement of a part but we must make completely sure that we have sufficient stock for everyone and also that any parts we are sending out do not also have the same issue."
Though the company says that "the smell is not related to cat urine or any other type of biological contaminant," it has not revealed why the affected units emanate the unpleasant odour.
The company also said that new units of Latitude 6430u ultrabook do not suffer from this issue.
:sly:
