Dell tells me the battery expansion on my M5510 breaking my trackpad is not covered?

Hi,

Around January 2017, 7 months after owning this laptop the track pad started to come loose. At first I didnt know why, it was very minor, then each month it started to come off more and more. Around 2-3 months ago I stopped being able to use some of the functionality of the trackpad. I finally took the laptop apart to find out the battery had expanded and was causing this issue. I contacted dell right away after that. I purchased a M5510 with every upgrade (xeon, 4k, larger battery etc) and figured I would not have any issues as I use this for work. I contacted Dell and they told me its not covered and is not a "safety" concern.

I cant believe dell is telling me the battery expansion is not covered. How is this not a manufactures defect? I did not do any damage to my computer to have the track pad pop off and start to miss function. It no longer works properly and is continuing to expand.

Dell also tells me that the multiple cells which are very enlarged are not a safety concern. I find that difficult to believe since litium ion batteries explode once expanded too far and this laptop's battery continues to expand.

I believe I am just over my 1 year warranty period though the expansion started sometime in January 2017 only around 7-8 months after having the laptop.

Has anyone else had similar issues on the M5510 Precision series?

I dont understand how Dell says they stand behind their business series laptops but here is a obvious manufacture defect and they will not fix it.

 

Keep pushing them, threaten a charge back as this is known fault you can see reported by a lot of people.

 

seems like Dell is following the footprint of MacBook Pro Unibody pre-retinas....but 7 months is pretty short.

 

Battery expansion on li-ion is due to hydrogen (and oxygen) buildup, known for the ' Oh, the humanity!' event. Apart from it being very much a safety issue it also renders the trackpad effectively useless, so keep trying to get them to cover it.

The buildup is due to water inside the pack, either it got in at the factory or because it isn't properly sealed. If it's due to a poorly sealed pack then air gets in, water vapour condenses when the environment cools off and the water electrolysis. It'll keep doing this ad infinitum for as long as the pack is exposed to the outside air or the factory-origin-water has been completely converted to gas.

For the time being; disconnect and remove the battery for now and use it AC-only.

 

I was going to suggest removing the batter but I couldn't if these things boot without one due to it being a battery you can't swap. Only one way to find out

I know I forgot to hook the battery up after working in mine a couple of times but never reached for the power lead