Alan Cox's Exploding Laptop 339
Bowie J. Poag writes to mention a page put up to commemorate the explosion of Alan Cox's laptop. From the article: "Alan was on the other side of the room from the laptop. I was elsewhere. He yelled out, I ambled towards the room in my own good time, and then I heard 'Fire! Real fire! Call the fire brigade, now!' and I speeded up a bit. From Alan subsequently, I gather there was an explosion and flying pieces of laptop, and a fireball, and a couple of fires started where (presumably) boiling battery landed, and one fragment smashed an LCD monitor. And then there was smoke and smell (there is still smell) and smoke alarm wailing and firemen and sirens and paramedics (happily unneeded) and police and a man with a notebook asking questions for the fire report.'"
It's not that surprising. (Score:2, Interesting)
Maybe this will convince more people to take the battery out of the computer unless they need it.
Did Sony know about the batteries? (Score:4, Interesting)
Does Sony "cherry-pick" the A-grade batteries for their own use and send the B-grade and lower ones to their clients?
If so, what kind of liability issues does that raise. Sony HAS done some questionable things in the past knowingly.
Re:Then the insurance guy says... (Score:4, Interesting)
Sorry, but I believe HP has a trademark on that phrase, as I was so exquisitly told by the circuit city folks when I indicated that the HP5320dv I'd just bought would probably have linux on it in less than 48 hours. I picked up the warranty form and said, well, I just guess the lawyers will have to sort that out now won't we? It did get FC5 installed as soon as I could make backups to dvd's, and works great with FC5 on it except for the broadcom radio in it.
In any event, this, because its Alan Cox's machine, may well be the most famous blowup yet.
I don't know what type of battery is in my HP, but its been very well behaved so far. That knocking sound? Thats me, knocking on the wood of the tabletop here.
--
Cheers, Gene
Re:His own fault... (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's my thoughts: Nokia bought a batch of faulty batteries bud didn't want to admit it. Therefore they said the batteries weren't theirs, even though they coulod not make the distinction.
The real reason you should be buying laptop batteries directly from the manufacturer (or in this case, the vendor: Apple, Dell or IBM) and not a reseller, is that the Li-ion batteries start degrading as soon as they're manufactured due to stresses in the crystal matrix. It does not matter much, therefore, how the batteries are used, for they will only last up to three years before cells will break. Thus, you want the batteries as fresh from the factory as possible, which is why you buy them from the vendor and not a reseller, because the turnover speed at the vendor is greater.
Explosions are quite common to high-capacity batteries. It's the energy, you see.
B.
Re:If you were wondering if NiMH was competitive.. (Score:3, Interesting)
So it's roughly 8.5" x 11" (A4 for the metric world)? Because, you see, the term "notebook" was specifically inaugurated for the subclass of laptops the approximate size of -- get this -- a notebook. With the ones even smalled than that being "subnotebooks".
Laptop is an unfortunate consumer-ism
No, it's a manufacturer-coined name for the class of machine small enought to fit on the lap and powered by batteries, going back to the advertising for the Gavilan SC.
how long? (Score:4, Interesting)
Have there been any fatalities yet? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Wait 'til the FAA sees this... (Score:1, Interesting)
> I'm still waiting for airlines to install power sockets. I've flown hundreds of flights around the US on several airlines in the past several years and I have only found ONE plane that had power.
I just recently flew from Japan to Taiwan on China Airlines, Airbus A330 plane, and they had 110v power on each seat AND a lan socket (but i'm not sure if that was usable as I didn't have a cat5 cable with me). Boeing is behind times with their planes...
Re: Did Sony know about the batteries? (Score:2, Interesting)
If Sony battery only fails in one particular brand of computer (say Dell), we can still blame Dell engineers for failed charging circuit design. But, now, it is basically everyone who use Sony batteries (with exception to Sony itself). I can only draw one of the two conclusions: First, Sony "cherry-pick" A-grade batteries for its own use and they know the B-grade batteries can explode. That would be criminal. I don't think (and hope) they sink that low. Second, Sony engineers discovered that their batteries will work probably only if they "tweak" the charging circuit in some special way and fail (or reluctant) to release those recommendations to other manufacturers.
If that's the case, should that be classified as neligience or as prefectly okay commerical practice?
Re:Data Recover (Score:3, Interesting)