So you’ve just bought a new laptop, but when you open it up for the first time, you’re hit with the smell of cat pee. Astonished huh? Well that is exactly what a number of people had to deal with for months whilst Dell tried to locate where the smell was coming from.
Thankfully, the smell was only lingering around one particular model, the Latitude 6430u. Following initial advice to blast the keyboard with compressed air, dell continued to scratch through the the components until they found the culprit. Believe it or not the smell was coming from nothing more than the palm rest. Whilst many people are going to be wondering what exactly has been added to this humble component, Dell are keeping quiet on what exactly they added to the product to make the awful smell.
Don’t be alarmed however as it’s not unheard of for urine to be used in a manufacturing process. There have been cases of car cylinder blocks been pee’d on by employees as they stood outside to harden them. Now the reason for this rather extreme process all comes down to the chemical composition of urine. Whilst it is a liquid, as we all know, it has a very high concentration of nitrogen to it and this can be used as an agent to strengthen plastics and metals during the manufacturing process.
Don’t be scared that s0meone has pee’d on your laptop though as it is an alternative substance that is high in nitrogen that has been added to get the same result, even if it does leave the part smelling of cat pee. If your Latitude 6430u is one of the affected units, then fear not as Dell are shortly going to be offering replacement parts soon.
Source: BBC News
I hope urine was the only bodily waste that found it’s way into production of these units.:-)
Dell, urine trouble.