Recent national newspaper adverts from Dell promise customers a 'hot deal' if they order online. 

The advert, featured in The Times on 16 August, appeared one day after Dell issued a recall of four million laptop batteries due to a risk of fire. The promotion urges customers to 'go online for a hot deal!'. 

Sony faces a potential loss of more than $225m after notebook PC batteries it supplied to Dell apparently exploded or caught fire, industry sources revealed to vnunet.com. 

The recall comes after reports of Dell laptops bursting into flames. A Dell laptop caught fire at a conference in Japan in June, as reported by vnunet.com's sister site The Inquirer. 

A further case involving a Dell laptop catching fire in Illinois came to light at the end of July. 

Pictures of another Dell laptop that set itself on fire emerged in August. The incident occurred in November last year in Singapore. 

Dell responded at the time, stating that it was aware of the incidents and "taking the appropriate action".