The company calls it a manufacturing defect

Several Dell users complained against Latitude 6430u Ultrabooks for smelling of cat urine.

Even though a number of Dell users continue to accuse their laptop of smelling cat urine, the engineers at the company have already ruled out any possibility of biological contamination. They have already declared that the smell is not related to any kind of health hazard. The company has informed that the problem rather lies in the manufacturing process. The issue has already been solved, according to the company.

The company asked the affected users to send the laptops back for replacing parts. It was back in June 2013 when customers started complaining about the filthy smell. Three West, a user who complained on the hardware support forum of the company, wrote that his laptop smelt as if it had been assembled close to the litter box of a tomcat. He found it 'truly awful'.

Hoteca is another user who thought that one of her cats had urinated on the laptop. There were some issues with the laptop so she had it replaced. When the new one too smelt similar, she understood the real problem. She found it 'embarrassing' to carry the laptop to clients as it really smelt bad. Many other users admitted blaming their cats for the smell.

Support technicians at Dell initially suggested that the laptop air vents should be cleaned as it contained compressed air. Nevertheless, there was no positive result even after following those instructions. Another user, Malioz, raised his concern in September that the main reason behind the smell was due to the polymer which had been used in the laptop plastics. He was also concerned about the health hazards which might be involved.

Dell, on the other hand, did an investigation and came to a conclusion that the smell would not cause a health hazard. They also said that the smell was not due to feline urine or any such biological contaminant. SteveB, the support technician of the company, said that the problem was in the manufacturing process which, according to him, had already been resolved.