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Dell laptop explodes
the Inquirer ^
| 21 June 2006
| Inquirer staff
Posted on 07/10/2006 9:21:04 AM PDT by FormerACLUmember
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To: bwteim
Perhaps. Putting a laptop on what appears to be some type of fabric or plastic table cloth wouldn't help with heat dissipation either.The cause of the the fire was definitely the batteries. The 'multiple pops' are the give-away. Lithium batteries are also sensative to heat, so it's possible that when they over-heated, they went into thermal runaway.
61
posted on
07/10/2006 11:52:52 AM PDT
by
Ol' Dan Tucker
(Karen Ryan reporting...)
To: girlscout
Cooling pads are a no-brainer IMO. My laptops run much cooler with them.
62
posted on
07/10/2006 12:14:07 PM PDT
by
zeugma
(I reject your reality and substitute my own in its place.)
To: FormerACLUmember; Slings and Arrows
*gulp* My sister has just bought a Dell laptop... uh-oh, I'm sitting at a Dell desktop... I hope desktops aren't affected...
63
posted on
07/10/2006 12:16:57 PM PDT
by
Irish_Thatcherite
(A vote for Bertie Ahern is a vote for Gerry Adams!|The IRA are actually terrorists, any questions?)
To: Publius6961
You know a source of laptop parts?? A case and power supply would be good.
Ebay.
64
posted on
07/10/2006 12:20:39 PM PDT
by
JamesP81
("Never let your schooling interfere with your education" --Mark Twain)
To: Ol' Dan Tucker
Thanks, I will file that under the many things I didn't know. I assume majority of laptop batteries are lithium?
65
posted on
07/10/2006 1:53:56 PM PDT
by
bwteim
(Stop in at the FReepathon --- Loosen your Wallet --- Not All of the Best Things in Life are Free)
To: bwteim
I assume majority of laptop batteries are lithium?These days, that would be a correct assumption.
Not just laptops, but cell phones, pagers, etc.
If the battery is flat and wide, it's a lithium. If it's round, it'll say what chemistry the battery uses. (dry cell, alkaline, nicad, nimh, lithium, etc.)
All round lithium cells incorporate the protective circuitry, so they're pretty safe.
Some flat lithium cells do, some don't. Sometimes the manufacturer will incorporate the protective circuitry into the charger. So, it's the flat cells you have to watch out for.
The absolute worse thing to do is to use a non-lithium charger on lithium cells. Neither the voltages nor the current (amps) will match.
As I wrote above, unlike all other battery technology, lithiums are sensative to both voltage and current (amp) errors. If you use a charger with voltage too high, or if the charging current exceeds 1C/cell (single-cell capacity), or if you overdischarge the cell, expect a puffed pack, followed shortly by a toxic, corrosive white cloud, followed shortly by an intense, spitting flame.
66
posted on
07/10/2006 2:40:36 PM PDT
by
Ol' Dan Tucker
(Karen Ryan reporting...)
To: FormerACLUmember; All
Back in '02 or '03, I had an end user bring me a Dell D600 with a little hardware 'problem' to repair. It, too, had a thermal *ahem* 'event', and the power adapter plug had gotten so hot, the plug literally fused itself into the adapter jack on the back of the notebook. There was no separating the adapter cord, motherboard, or case plastics. How in the hell that happened but could still power up on AC afterwards was a one-in-a-million shot, but it did. As a Dell tech, I get the occasional service recalls snail-mailed to me. And I've run into widespread power problems with their many of their models. The GX260 towers have bad power supplies inside. The GX 270 SFF desktops blow entire banks of capacitors. I had one that I repaired about six months ago, and it got so hot inside, the memory stick was actually warped. The only reason it didn't go up in flames was because it had sucked so much dirt inside, there probably wasn't enough oxygen circulating to allow ignition. LMAO *POOF!* OK, that particular one wasn't (entirely) Dell's fault, but yes, Dells are more well-known in tech circles for this type of thing than the public is aware of. Somebody's gonna get hurt bad one of these days.
67
posted on
07/10/2006 5:17:32 PM PDT
by
Viking2002
(Allah FUBAR!)
To: reagan_fanatic
Oh, heck! I was hoping it was some esoteric new techie slang that I could learn and then impress my eldest son, who is an IT guy.
Yes, I have gotten the porn offers in the past but not lately. I have never seen "pr0n" in the subject line, however. Unfortunately, I do get lots and lots of the "male enhancement" junk, though, promising in the subject line what I can do to or with or for "her". What makes it even more ridiculous is that I am a happily married woman! :-)
68
posted on
07/10/2006 5:28:51 PM PDT
by
Bigg Red
(Never trust Democrats with national security.)
To: FormerACLUmember; JamesP81
How about an Apple laptop? Before an anti-Mac fanatic answers I will. Apple's laptops are not immune from this exploding battery either. An Apple iBook G4 burst into flame after being left on by an 11 year old boy a couple of months ago.
He did leave it sitting on a shag rug on the floor which may have impeded the cooling airflow, but it did indeed burst into flames.
Also the initial production run of Mac 5300 laptops was prone to overheating and some of them got hot enough to warp the plastic case. The problems were traced to a Korean battery manufacturer. 28,000 Mac laptops were recalled for battery replacement. At the same time, 129,000 HP laptops were recalled because of battery overheating... the batteries were manufactured by the same Korean company that was cutting corners on specs.
69
posted on
07/10/2006 11:44:31 PM PDT
by
Swordmaker
(Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE!")
To: Ol' Dan Tucker
70
posted on
07/11/2006 5:29:04 AM PDT
by
bwteim
(Stop in at the FReepathon --- Loosen your Wallet --- Not All of the Best Things in Life are Free)
To: FormerACLUmember
To: bwteim
72
posted on
07/11/2006 7:17:19 AM PDT
by
Ol' Dan Tucker
(Karen Ryan reporting...)
To: FormerACLUmember
Maybe he was looking up hotbabe.com.
(GROAN)
73
posted on
07/11/2006 8:28:19 AM PDT
by
MoochPooch
(I'm a compassionate cynic.)
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