Dell's engineering teams are working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and a third-party failure analysis lab to determine the root cause of this failure and to ensure we take all appropriate measures to help prevent a recurrence.

The federal consumer unit could become an ally to Dell, which is pointing the finger at the exploding laptop's lithium ion battery unit. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has repeatedly found problems with lithium ion batteries in a number of electronic devices, including - since last year - laptops manufactured by Dell rivals Apple and Hewlett-Packard. (Apple, Dell and HP have all had to recall thousands of units with the batteries at the CPSC's behest due to fire and safety hazards.)

Dell has been working to firewall off any more bad press from exploding laptop issues. Industry journal The Inquirer published a letter to the editor on July 4, purportedly from a second Dell customer (identified only as "Rich S.," an IT administrator from Pittsburgh) who suffered an exploding laptop. That letter prompted analyst Cindy Shaw from Moors & Cabot to issue an investor alert that more bad press on the issue could be damaging to Dell.

However, when I asked a Dell spokeswoman about that report, she responded in an email that, "(o)ur investigation so far has not indicated any broader trend..." She encouraged the anonymous letter writer to contact Dell.