Dell Canada Inc. faces a lawsuit filed by an Ontario man on behalf of Canadians who own certain models of Inspiron notebook computers with purported defects that cause complete system failure, the plaintiff’s lawyer has announced.

The class action suit, filed last week in Ontario Superior Court with Thad Griffin of Aurora, Ont., as the lead plaintiff, alleges that design defects make the computers susceptible to overheating and premature failure of the motherboard — one of the main components of any computer.