Dell’s flaming laptops have entered the realm of urban legend. Incendiary tales gained wider circulation last June, when an alert photographer snapped a photo of a Dell laptop bursting into flame at a conference in Osaka, Japan. Finally, when it became clear the culprit behind the spontaneous combustion was the battery, the company stepped up and took action.

Dell last week announced a voluntary recall of 4.1 million Li-Ion (Lithium Ion) batteries manufactured by Sony. The batteries shipped in a wide range of laptops, including the Latitude, Inspiron, and Precision lines, according to a statement by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, with which Dell is cooperating. As it turns out, the same battery model is used by Apple, Lenovo, and HP. So how big is this really?

Dell and Sony traced the problem to a flaw in a particular batch of Li-Ion batteries from Sony, which contained microscopic metal particles. Those particles can, in some circumstances, move from one area of a battery cell to another, causing a short or, in rare cases, a fire, said Rick Clancy, a spokesman for Sony Electronics.

According to Clancy, the configuration of the Dell-branded cells, combined with other factors such as the proximity of heating sources and battery charging voltage, could contribute to the few flameouts Dell confirmed.

In fact, Dell and Sony made changes to the Li-Ion battery pack manufacturing and configuration in October 2005 and then again in February to address the overheating issue in the Li-Ion battery packs, Clancy acknowledged. For example, Sony made changes to make sure that there are as few metal particles as possible in its Li-Ion cells and that they’re as small as possible. 

Dell said it is being conservative in its recall, taking back a whole generation of batteries, even though some may not prove a risk, said Anne Camden, a spokeswoman for Dell.

Dell competitors such as HP, and even Sony itself, say their customers are safe, even though their products use the same Sony Li-Ion cells.

“We don’t see any issues around this whatsoever,” said Mike Hockey, a spokesman for HP.

The same can’t be said for enterprise IT staff, who are gearing up for a grim task, especially at large enterprises that standardized on Dell hardware.

“It’s a huge pain in the butt,” said Chris Brown, at Wachovia Bank, where IT is asking users to check their laptop battery and call the help desk if they have one affected by the recall.

Clarke Morledge, a network engingeer in the IT group at the College of William & Mary, estimated that it could be months before his group has an accurate assessment of the impact of the recall.

But with worker and public safety at risk, few are saying they will ignore the voluntary recall request.

“There isn’t much choice, is there?” Morledge said.