Worried about your laptop smelling of cat urine? Fear not, you're not actually going mad, a number of Dell users have complained that their Catitude
Latitude 6430u Ultrabooks are giving off an unpleasant whiff.
"A few weeks ago I got a new Lattitude 6430u for work," one user called Three West complained on Dell's hardware support forum. "The machine is great, but it smells as if it was assembled near a tomcat's litter box. It is truly awful!"
Another customer, Hoteca, said: "I thought for sure one of my cats sprayed it, but there was something faulty with it so I had it replaced. The next one had the same exact issue. It's embarrassing taking it to clients because it smells so bad."
Quite a few users blames their poor cats for the smell:
"I have been blaming a new kitten who I swore was creeping into my closed back pack at night and magically only hitting the PC with a concentrated urine stream which then magically evaporated"
DaveFWA
I almost started the week with my cat at the vet...getting the needle...but after checking my bag (smelled fine) and the kitchen table (the only place that the laptop wasn't in the bag) I can't blame the cat. Now I read this...good gosh it stinks. This has to be a joke because you guys had to notice this...it's almost burning my eyes,"
inverted_2000
I want you to know that I killed our 1 year old cat, thinking it was pissing on my computer each night and now come across THIS forum telling me otherwise. Not only do I want a new computer, I want a new cat, vet fees, letter of apology and payment for my divorce lawyer, since my wife has left me after finding this out.
First, Dell told the irate users to try cleaning the laptop with a soft cloth. That didn't work. Then they suggested compressed air, further heightening frustrations.
Dell has now apologised and offered replacement laptops to users with the cat-wee version.
SteveB, official representative for Dell on the issue of cat-pee-scented computing, wrote:
What we do know at this time is that this smell is absolutely not urine or any other type of biological material. The parts have been tested and we have confirmed this 100%. The smell is caused by a manufacturing process which has now been changed and we are confident that the issue is resolved for all new E6430u currently shipping.