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Users complain their Dell 6430u laptops smell like cat piss

en.community.dell.com

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

#61

Post by vidarh »

krenoten wrote: post #31

It's part of a hardening process that has been employed by weapon smiths for time immemorial, known as "quenching". After you form the laptop case / sword / rifle barrel, and it is still hot, it is to be submerged in urine. I'm surprised it's taken laptop manufacturers so long to catch up.

In the UK there's a TV show called QI ("Quite Interesting"), hosted by Stephen Fry, which likes to dig up "quite interesting" odd "facts" (in quotes, as sometimes they are twisting things quite far) and ask questions about them. Especially things that will get the celebrity panelists to give "obvious" but wrong answers (which they are penalized for).

One of their questions years back was "why does the House of Lords smell like wee?"

Supposedly it at least used to because stale human urine used to be used in the manufacture of Harris Tweed, which used to be the favoured cloth for suits worn by the peers. Which was not usually a problem, except, supposedly, when it rains, at which point the suit would smell faintly of urine. Gather a few hundred of them together in a room...

Here's a thread from the QI forum regarding the topic - the whole thread is quite amusing, but the end contains a fuller description, with their sources:

http://old.qi.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=1694&start=0&sid=5efc...

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

#62

Post by vpears87 »

fchollet wrote: post #58
sandGorgon wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reply is even more interesting . This is by an official rep. Really impressed by Dell. "As mentioned above, no biological hazard was involved and we do know that a manufacturing process was the root cause. That process was changed which resolved the issue on newly manufactured units. As for everyone out there with a unit that still exhibits the symptoms, we haven't forgotten about you and will make things right.…

Dell laptops are assembled by cats. Incontinent cats.

Cats would cost less people to assemble the product. Beef up those margins.

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

#63

Post by jimmywong »

sandGorgon wrote: post #44
nilsbunger wrote: post #15

This was a fun read. My favorite post: '''When you write that the "problem has been resolved," do you mean that when I open my computer it will no longer smell like a pack of well hydrated feral cats have used it for target practice resolved, or do you mean that you have resolved the mystery of what has caused the problem? Jus' 'asking.'''

The reply is even more interesting . This is by an official rep. Really impressed by Dell. "As mentioned above, no biological hazard was involved and we do know that a manufacturing process was the root cause. That process was changed which resolved the issue on newly manufactured units. As for everyone out there with a unit that still exhibits the symptoms, we haven't forgotten about you and will make things right.…

What's so impressive? It is just a delaying tactic from June till now. And still no resolution.

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

#64

Post by protomyth »

andrewflnr wrote: post #55
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.

My Ford Escape's air conditioning smells like cat pee sometimes, when it's first waking up. Not too badly, but the resemblance is quite distinct.

Handy tip from the north, if it's cold, cats sometimes get up in the engine area. It might not be a bad idea if you know there are cats about to bang on the hood before starting the car. You might get something worse than the pee otherwise.

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

#65

Post by rurounijones »

Gigablah wrote: post #52
rurounijones wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As opposed to....

Fedex? Your cat? I dunno. We don't know if it's a particular batch or all of them uniformly smell like that.

Many people reporting the problem so it is not a cat unless it is very well travelled and has a grudge against Dell laptops.

It could be that every owner has a cat and they all feel the need to mark dell laptops as their property but that seems unlikely.

If you read the comments you will see that they did not all immediately reek but it happened over a few days which rules out a batch getting watered en route since they would stink when removed from box (and probably suffer other problems, Laptops + liquid do not mix)

That is even assuming said liquid could even make it to the laptop through all the packaging.

It sounds far more like a reaction to hands + chemicals in/on keyboard or maybe chemicals used to create keyboard gradually reacting to heat of laptop.

Especially since people have provided links in threads detailing how this can happen.

So occam's razor, something in the manufacturing process; even if it is just one batch.

AKA Dell's fault.

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

#66

Post by larrys »

smacktoward wrote: post #21

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/…

Had the same conclusion with regard to carpeting in a commercial property where a small amount of entrance hall carpet was glued down.

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

#68

Post by markwakeford »

whalesalad wrote: post #18
bichiliad wrote: post #11

Part of me wonders whether or not this is some sort of collective joke by Reddit or 4chan or something. Another part of me is not surprised. Dell isn't particularly notorious for their astute QC.

The last time I ordered a Dell product it arrived and would not boot. Did absolutely nothing. Was completely DOA. That put a bad taste in my mouth. Their displays have treated me well though, and their server products are great.

I had an HP do the exact same thing.

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

#69

Post by Lagged2Death »

ekianjo wrote: post #29

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…

I bought a 2nd-gen iPod Shuffle years ago, like the week it came out. Plugged it in to Windows iTunes and it immediately updated and bricked itself.

Apple forums showed several threads and hundreds of posts by other people with the exact same problem over the previous few days.

I made a post saying (truthfully) that I had managed to get the iPod working again - by using Winamp. Instead of iTunes.

Within hours, all the message threads about that problem had quietly disappeared.

I decided to return the iPod.

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