Correction: Letter O vs. Number 0 for Battery Recall

Fri. Aug. 18, 2006

Need to correct earlier statements I made on this blog regarding entering your battery serial number (PPID) on the battery recall site. My sincere apologies for the misinformation.

Here’s what I can say:

  • The first 15 characters your PPID only contains zeros.
  • The last 5 characters may contain the number 0 (zero) or the letter O.
  • Since the last 5 characters can contain both a 0 (zero) and/or a letter O, please be careful when you are entering your battery serial number.

Some Direct2Dell readers have asked whether the system identifies invalid numbers.  The answer is no.  Will aim to provide more clarification on this early next week, but wanted to get this correction out after I could confirm the above details.

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Only published comments... Friday, August 18, 2006 06:45 PM
by Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger
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Direct2Dell said:
Some customers are wondering why some batteries Dell distributed during this time period are part of...
August 18, 2006 6:59 PM
Direct2Dell said:
It’s me again. I just talked to J.B. Johnson, Dell’s program manager for the battery recall, and I wanted...
August 18, 2006 7:04 PM
Kirk said:
I figured out as soon as I looked at the serial number on my battery that there were both O's and 0's in there. With all the people at Dell working on this recall, it took you all this time to figure that out?? I'm trying to be impressed with Dell's turnaround efforts, but you guys sure seem clueless sometimes.
August 18, 2006 7:36 PM
Drew said:
https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/Identify.aspx I've been trying for 2 days, probably 20 times per day, and every time, the site just times out.
August 18, 2006 9:48 PM
ben_b said:
For the time being you might suggest trying the "0" or "o"'s as both to make sure neither show as needing replacement.
August 18, 2006 11:37 PM
Mike said:
Lionel, Just a suggestion that Dell should publish the progress of the battrey recall for all regions. And a target date for completion. Provide more data to the 4mil breakdown. In order to avoid double claims dhe batt should be retireved and destroyed so that there is complete removal from operating use. If not done, it may come back to haunt in future quarters. You may omit my inputs from this blog if you wish. Rgds, Mike
August 19, 2006 1:34 AM
Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger said:
Kirk, two things took time: 1) Figuring out how to best limit the confusion around this issue, and 2) Verifying those details. The reality is that only the last 5 characters may contain both zeroes or Os. There are a number of people working on this recall as you suggest, and they are focused on getting replacement batteries out to customers as quickly as possible.
August 19, 2006 6:14 AM
Terry said:
Good grief. People can gripe about anything. How about this novel idea: look at your number and type it in carefully. I'd rather Dell spend their time coordinating the massive logistical problem of getting replacement batteries shipped quickly rather than researching which digits are legal in the PPID.
August 19, 2006 7:43 AM
Confluence: IRC-IT said:
Dell has identified a potential issue associated with certain batteries sold with Dell Latitude, Inspiron, XPS and Dell Precision Mobile Workstation notebook computers. \......
August 21, 2006 6:44 AM
Craig A. Wyzik said:
Perhaps there should be a recall on the difficult-to-read battery labels?
August 21, 2006 8:06 AM
A Different Craig said:
One of my technicians has reported that the "letter-oh vs. number-zero" problem also exists for the "number-1 versus letter-eye (i)" characters in the S/N.
August 21, 2006 1:08 PM
Ted McFadden said:
I've encountered another problem positively identifying a battery serial number. After confirming my main laptop battery was not recalled, I went to check my unused spare battery: The unopened plastic packaging bag for my spare dell battery has a different serial number than the one I can see through the packaging on the battery itself. (Neither S/N is recalled.) I no longer have the plastic bag for the original battery, so I can't check its package serial number. During manufacturing, when is the S/N sticker placed on the battery and when is it bagged with a S/N sticker?
August 24, 2006 7:15 AM
Bart Hanson said:
Why do manufs. not just use a slash through the Zero to distinguish it from the letter O?
March 11, 2008 10:12 PM

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