The recall is due to a design flaw in the lithium-ion batteries incorporated into Dell's Inspiron 5000 and 5000(e) notebooks, which can cause the laptops to overheat. At a press conference in Malaysia this morning, Dell chairman and CEO Michael S Dell declined to discuss any specifics of the company's current relations with Panasonic, or to reveal the cost of recalling the batteries. When contacted, Panasonic declined to comment, except to say that "Dell is managing this product recall and has asked us to direct all questions to them". This was not Dell's first battery recall. Last October, the Texas-based computer maker faced the same problem with batteries manufactured by Sanyo Electric Company. Dell had to recall 27,000 Inspiron and Latitude notebook batteries. According to the Singapore-based Dell spokesperson, Sanyo is still one of the company's original equipment manufacturers.