Some of Dell's online outlet stores, where it sells refurbished PCs, were unable to process orders Saturday due to an apparent technical error.

Attempts to access pricing and availability for laptops and desktops were met with blank pages or a "server error" message. The problem affected Dell's outlet stores for the U.S., U.K. and Ireland.

The stores sell equipment at discounted rates and are separate from Dell's primary online stores, which appeared to be working normally.

The problems at the U.S. outlet store began Friday evening, according to messages posted to the NotebookReview Web site, and the site was still down Saturday evening.

"I tried last night and early this morning to view the inventory on Dell's Small [Business] website but I kept receiving an error message," a user with the screen name Stevoreno wrote on the NotebookReview.com forums Web site Saturday morning.

Dell did not respond to requests for comment. A customer service agent on its support line said the U.S. store was having "technical issues" and that the company was working to fix it.

The downtime could hurt the clearance sale going on at Dell's U.S. outlet store, where 15 percent discounts are being offered on Inspiron PCs and Mini netbooks.