[Glenn]

You get what you pay for.

[inkling]

Maybe it was a Hamas suicide computer. Now it resides in paradise with 72 iPods.

[Abram]

I wondered if my computer would do that. I have a very old monitor...and my computer makes some funny sounds occasionally. I have worried about that before. Interesting story.

[Joe Bonforte]

It's likely that the battery was a clone instead of the original Dell battery. Clone battery manufacturers are notorious for not including the safety measures that keep batteries from doing stuff like this.

[Poser]

I'm writing this on a Dell Inspiron that is about 18 months old and... it's sitting on my lap. Fortunately, I have a plastic plate from Cyberguys under it. The battery will have to melt through an extra layer of lexan before it gets me.

[sam_paine]

You get what you pay for.

NiMH, or any rechargeable batteries are a dangerous toxic fire hazard, no matter whose system they fail in.

I was involved in some of the early 90's power management development of chips that went into both Dell and Compaq machines, and at the time, Microsoft was proposing that the operating system would entirely manage the charging of the battery. They insisted, so Dell and CPQ both acquiesced, sort of. They built a microcontroller method that the OS had to "ASK" to charge the battery, etc. That way, Dell and CPQ still had control over that critical action, even if (when) the OS hangs! Extra costs brought to you by Bill!!!

[freedumb2003]

[TommyDale]

Probably a junior hacker trying to overclock.

[Dead Corpse]

"People just explode sometimes. Natural causes." -Repo Man

[pabianice]

Computer explodes burning teenager

OK. First, why was the teenager burning? How did the computer make her explode? And why was a burning teenager online?

[Lady Jag]

Keep your flame suit on; it happens all the time at FR.

[HairOfTheDog]

I've been wearin' a seat belt at the computer since I heard all the stories about computers crashing... I don't know how to protect against this!

[jimkress]

Computer explodes burning teenager

The computer blew up a teenager who was on fire? How weird is that!?

[telebob]

Hey, this happens all the time, especially to online Islamists. You can play too.

Here's what you do:

Go to any hollerin' Muslim website. Chat up some retard going on about the jews, Amerika biggest terrorist and so forth...

Type at him "You're the biggest freakin' moron in the world. No wonder you're gonna wind up as a pair of smoking leg stumps"

He'll type back something like "I kee U"

Tell the idiot that you're sitting in front of your computer right now. If he fires a couple rounds from his AK into his modem, he'll probably get you...

[Johnny_Cipher]

If a teenager burns in the computer room while no one's watching, does that still mean that my wife is right about everything?

[aruanan]

Computer explodes burning teenager

But did it put the burning teenager out?

[mtbopfuyn]

Naw, it was loaded with potatoes.

[Viking2002]

If you go to any given manufacturer's web site, you'll see that they're always recalling lots of laptop batteries bacuase of manufacturing defects. They have a tendency to overheat when they're charging.

[Old Professer]

Lithium batteries become unstable after they have reached their maximum recycling period.

[Darksheare]

Dell's new ads won't be having "Expire something.

[Redcloak]

"Out, damned laptop. Out I say!"