Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Users complain their Dell 6430u laptops smell like cat piss

en.community.dell.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 166 posts

Re: Users complain their Dell 6430u laptops smell like cat piss

#21

Post by smacktoward »

Fascinating. I was shopping for new sneakers the other day and was shocked at how many people over the last couple of years had reported new pairs of New Balance shoes having exactly the same "smells like cat urine" problem (see: http://ask.metafilter.com/182458/Something-peed-in-my-sneake..., http://reviews.newbalance.com/9328/M990/new-balance-new-bala..., http://www.zappos.com/product/review/7944390/page/1/start/5, or just Google "new balance odor").

The prevailing theory is that it has something to do with the glue they use when assembling the shoe. I wonder if the same glue is hidden in these laptops somewhere...

Re: Users complain their Dell 6430u laptops smell like cat piss

#22

Post by hoi »

joezydeco wrote: post #6
jacob019 wrote: post #2

5 pages of comments, how bizarre. What could possibly go wrong in manufacturing to make electronics smell like cat piss?

Happens all the time with shady third-party manufacturers in countries other than your own. You get a perfectly nice sample unit that meets all specs and looks beautiful. When the container arrives off the boat with 100,000 production units you find materials have been substituted with cheaper materials, scrap plastic, and scavenged components. Walk into any dollar store and you'll smell something similar to this, ch…

Yeah, that's why I no longer use US or European manufacturers ... ;)

Re: Users complain their Dell 6430u laptops smell like cat piss

#24

Post by imjared »

whalesalad wrote: post #17

Reminds me of my sisters Volkswagen beetle. It's got some material under the leather that smells exactly like crayons. It's impossible to get rid of. Not as bad as cat piss but really strong. Gives me a feeling of nostalgia every time I'm in it haha. Google "Volkswagen smells like crayons" and you'll find a lot of VWs in the early 2000s have the same smell.

A friend in college had one of the new beetles and I always found this hilarious since her aspiration was to be an elementary school teacher. Really strange stuff though.

Re: Users complain their Dell 6430u laptops smell like cat piss

#26

Post by [deleted] »

ketralnis wrote: post #20
joseph_cooney wrote: post #16

Yesterday when some apple users said their Macbook battery life had been impacted by the Mavericks upgrade the consensus on HN was that "people blame all kinds of problems on software upgrades". When some Dell users say their laptops smell funny, then Dell has a QA problem.

Was it a software upgrade that caused the laptops to smell like cat piss?

[deleted]

Re: Users complain their Dell 6430u laptops smell like cat piss

#27

Post by Gigablah »

rurounijones wrote: post #19
joseph_cooney wrote: post #16

Yesterday when some apple users said their Macbook battery life had been impacted by the Mavericks upgrade the consensus on HN was that "people blame all kinds of problems on software upgrades". When some Dell users say their laptops smell funny, then Dell has a QA problem.

Hard to blame software upgrades for urine smells on new laptops. I also think users are probably better at diagnosing "The keyboard smells like piss" than software implications on battery life

"The keyboard smells like piss, therefore it's Dell's fault"

Re: Users complain their Dell 6430u laptops smell like cat piss

#29

Post by ekianjo »

If it were on Apple boards they would have deleted the message I guess, and pretended nothing ever happened :)

EDIT: in case people who downvote me don't understand the reference, see yesterday's news regarding Larry Lessig's complaint being censored on Apple forums, apparently for the interest of keeping the forums clean. Wouldn't that kind of "cat piss" complaint fall in the exact same "unhelpful comment" category ?

Post reply on HN