HP Recalls More Laptops For 'Fire and Burn Hazards'

The US Product and Safety Commission just announced HP's "battery safety" recall of about 78,500 laptops for what the UPSC calls "fire and burn hazards." From a report: HP initiated the recall in January 2018, and expanded it in January 2019, but the news hadn't widely circulated because of the US government shutdown -- the UPSC finally posted the news to its site on Tuesday with the explanation "NOTE: This recall expansion was previously announced independently on January 17, 2019 by the firm due to US government furlough." This is part of a continuing series of battery recalls from HP. The January 28 recall was for about 51,000 models, but 41,000 were recalled in June 2016 and 100,000 in January 2017, bringing the total for the past 2.5 years to almost a quarter of a million.

Am I affected?

[Artem S. Tashkinov]

Look no further: HP Notebook Computer and Mobile Workstation Battery Safety Recall and Replacement Program [hp.com]

Non-user-servicable batteries

[thegreatbob]

From what I can tell, all affected models have internal batteries. Hope affected users have a spare computer they can use in the mean time, I guess.

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[drinkypoo]

From what I can tell, all affected models have internal batteries.

The photos in the recall expansion notice [cpsc.gov] appear to show examples of both user-replaceable and internal batteries. What resources did you use to make that determination?

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[thegreatbob]

Quick search of the models described. I could be wrong.

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[thegreatbob]

Also, I shouldn't have made "non-user-servicable" the subject line, as it is clear now that some are user replaceable (though still concealed internally, e.g. zbook 17 g4).

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[jellomizer]

My current work laptop a Think Pad, has an external and internal battery. (That came to my surprise, when it locked up, so I unplugged it, and took the battery out and the computer was still running) However it is getting further harder to to find a laptop with a fully replaceable battery.

I think STEM classes should have a class on teaching good soldering (and desoldering) skills, for the future of computer maintenance. Us Old guys got spoiled with connectors which were designed to fit in only the correc

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[Nidi62]

So my computer doubles as a grill? Time for a grilled cheese sandwich!

Those slits on the bottom aren't for air flow, they're for grill lines.

WTF is a UPSC?

[drinkypoo]

There's no UPSC, it's the US CPSC [cpsc.gov]. HTH, HAND.

Ah yes, what my old boss once called...

[OldMugwump]

...the "exploding laptop market".

Re:

[alaskana98]

You could try 'reflowing' the GPU on your 2011 MacBook Pro to resurrect is. It's not a guarantee to work, of course, but since it's currently unusable there's not really much to lose. For those wondering what reflowing entails, it basically means you heat up the GPU chip on the motherboard by using either a hot air gun (can find them for really cheap on Ebay) or if you want to get fancy there are also dedicated reflow 'stations' that are a bit more for the professional market.

These GPU's typically fail no

Both of my work laptops(win7/win10) are hp.

[pgmrdlm]

Neither has replaceable battery. I guess I could always use my test Panasonic Tough Pad if both laptops burn up.

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[Gilgaron]

I always think of those Tough Pads when people complain about consumer phones not having ports or user replaceable stuff. They really ought to have a model with more consumer aesthetics.

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[Crash Dummy Redux]

Many processors have invalid instructions that fall into the "halt and catch fire" [wikipedia.org] instruction category (i.e., infinite loop or processor lockup).

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[Crash Dummy Redux]

Hey Chris! I just watched your last video and it is as boring as all the others.

Chris has a new video? Sweet!

As usual, I learned zero from watching it since you repeat yourself over and over and don't seem to know much.

That's because you're stupid. For example, you keep calling me Chris when I'm not Chris.

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[Crash Dummy Redux]

Actually, I copied and pasted that from the Original CDR to TROLL YOU. Geez... You're so stupid.

If I was Chris, wouldn't I have posted links to the new video all over Slashdot? I haven't seen any such links.

Remember how you lusted after CaptainDork before I came along?

Stupid fuck.