Laptop smells like cat pee? It’s ok, Dell says ‘urine’ good hands

Last year Dell released the slim Latitude 6430u notebook. It was a pretty routine launch, until buyers started complaining, not because the laptop’s battery life was poor or the machine had faulty parts, but because of a mysterious odor.

Dell's Latitude 6430u.

If you’ve ever smelled cat urine, then you would probably recognize the smell if it was coming from your computer.

This is what Latitude 6430u users have been complaining about.

“The machine is great, but it smells as if it was assembled near a tomcat's litter box.  It is truly awful! It seems to be coming from the keyboard,” posted Dell user Three West.

While most qualms were similar to this one, others were a bit more extreme, like a comment written by Dell user “Passflips” below.

Comment from Dell's support forum.

The smell was a result of a specific manufacturing process, explained Dell representative Kevin Dane on Dell’s blog on October 30, months after the first complaint appeared on the site.

“We would like to reassure customers that the odor was not related to biological contamination nor did it present a health hazard,” wrote Dane.

Dell reassured customers that the manufacturing process has now been changed and any newly purchased Latitude 6430u laptops will not be affected by the issue. A user whose device is currently affected should contact Dell and will receive a new keyboard.

Review the issue and resolution as presented on Dell’s support page.