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Source of Cat Pee Smell in Dell Laptops Found: the Palm Rest

It turns out that the keyboard wasn’t responsible for producing the bad smell

Oct 31, 2013 09:32 GMT  ·  By
Dell says that the palm rest is to blame for the cat-urine-like smell in laptops
   Dell says that the palm rest is to blame for the cat-urine-like smell in laptops

Yesterday we reported that customers using the Latitude 6430u were complaining about a foul smell reminiscent of cat urine. Dell acknowledged the problem and assured people that the “smell is absolutely not urine or any other type of biological material.”

Instead, the PC vendor blamed a manufacturing process for the issue

Now Dell has posted a fresh explanation on its official blog, pin-pointing to the location where the smell was originating. It was previously thought that the keyboard was to blame, and company representatives advised users on the forum to clean the part with soft cloth.

Nevertheless, the hint didn’t turn out to be helpful. And that’s because it wasn’t the keyboard.

“When the Latitude 6430u was launched we received feedback from some customers commenting on an odor around the laptop. Dell immediately addressed the customer comments in order to resolve the situation and an investigation revealed that this was occurring as a result of a specific manufacturing process.”

“We would like to reassure customers that the odor was not related to biological contamination nor did it present a health hazard. The manufacturing process has subsequently been amended and newly purchased Latitude 6430us are not affected by the issue.”

“Any customer who has a system with the odor can contact out technical support team at 1-800-456-3355 or www.dell.com/support and we will arrange to replace the palm rest assembly.”

So there you have it, the problem was actually the palm rest assembly. Customers are encouraged to send in their device, so they can have Dell replace the part. As for users thinking of purchasing a new Latitude 6430u, you heard Dell, it’s perfectly safe.

In an interesting turn, it appears urine can actually be used as a “strengthening agent” in manufacturing processes due to its high concentration of nitrogen. Our colleagues from autoevolution actually report that back in 1983 BMW had some people give a helping hand in the nitrogen department, while trying to harden a set of 4 inline cylinder blocks.