I am the owner of three Dell computers, two of them laptops.

Since the case in Japan, I have been very worried. Now these additional cases are scaring me to death.

I shall never buy a Dell again.

Two laptops, at most a handful of laptops out of how many? Hardly worth concern. Less than .01% for sure.

I've owned a dell laptop that has been with me thru Afghanistan and Iraq... it's survived and never caught fire.

Right on! If there isn't a little danger, then where is the fun, eh? I own a Dell laptop, and have been quite happy with it compared to the dozens of other brands I've had my hands on.

Been buying and supporting and using hundreds of Dell OptiPlex laptops for years and years and never had an unusual problem. Love'em and will keep on using'em.

Americans killed by lightning each year: ~80
Americans killed by automobiles each year: ~40,000
Americans killed by influenza each year: ~67,000
Americans killed by flaming Dell laptops each year: ?

Oops, sorry, ROBERTHWLIM was scared to death by his laptop, so raise the number to 1.

Most of these laptops run too hot. I used to have an IBM Thinkpad T23 that would melt the paint off of the bottom. Now I own a Dell D600 and it has had the motherboard and disc drive replaced for overheating reasons. However, it has never "let the smoke out"... I just hope it stays that way.

I'm hoping this is not happening because Dell has caved to the complainers about their batteries appearing to be VERY sensitive to internal imbalances. I would rather have an LiON pack stop working prematurly because there MIGHT be a problem, than to keep working with a problem present and explode into flames.

Don't you think it would be helpful for the world to know WHICH SPECIFIC DELL MODELS have been affected? There are so many Dell laptops. They are not all suceptible, are they? I just got a D620. I love it. Tell me I'm safe, please.

Why won't anyone list model numbers!!! I'd love to know if the laptop in front of me is on the "may turn into deadly flame thrower" list!

Ed: The latest was a Latitude D410. See pics at smh.com.au/technology

I have a Dell Precision M60 mobile workstation that runs VERY hot. The paint has peeled off the metal doors on the bottom of the case. Over the last three years, the motherboard has been replaced THREE times, the processor TWICE, the heat sink TWICE, the system fan FOUR times, the keyboard THREE times, and the display adapter TWICE!

It may be only Dell laptops that are being publicized as catching fire today, but see the article below...

March 21, 2005
You can see this great divide already taking shape in global electronics. The process started in the 1990s when Taiwan emerged as the capital of PC design, largely because the critical technology was standardized, on Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT ) operating system software and Intel Corp.'s (INTC ) microprocessor. Today, Taiwanese "original-design manufacturers" (ODMS), so named because they both design and assemble products for others, supply some 65% of the world's notebook PCs. Quanta Computer Inc. alone expects to churn out 16 million notebook PCs this year in 50 different models for buyers that include Dell, Apple Computer (AAPL ), and Sony (SNE ).

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_12/b3925601.htm

75% of the Laptops/Notebooks I purchase for my company are from Dell.

In my 5 years with my current company, I have seen ZERO exploding, Flame-Throwing Notebooks.

Now, how many Flame-Throwing notebooks have been reported from HP/Compaq, IBM, Lenovo, Winbook, Apple, generic, generic, generic, etc.???

If I ever experience an "exploding" notebook, there will be hell to pay. But for the time being, I think that flying commercial airlines is more dangereous, based on statistics, eh?

Why do we still call these machines laptops? Given that your privates are likely to fry on prolonged exposure - isnt that a class action suit waiting to happen? Somebody sign me up.

My husband had a Dell Latitude whose logic board melted and burned coal-black due to overheating. After heaving that logic board replaced (very expensively, mind you), the laptop proceeded to make a popping and zzt-zzt sounds while in use. The whole room smelled like burnt plastic afterward so we bought a desktop and never used that laptop again. No more Dell products for us EVER.

P.S.
My Thinkpad also fried itself a couple of years back but got never close to actually burning as my husband's Dell did.

that just prooves that DELL really does stand for

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