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Where There's Smoke There's A Burning Laptop Battery Pack: Update |
Listed in: Tags: apple news, Canada, Hewlett-Packard, Japan
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Several weeks ago a family experienced hell when their 11-year old kid's iBook burst into flames. It's not really the laptop but the battery packs that are to blame. As many as 43 laptop fires in the the US were reported in 2001 based on U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission records. No fatalities yet, however, there were severe injuries."A burning laptop is a burning laptop, and it can pretty much happen anywhere," said Carmi Levy, an Info-Tech research group analyst. And it did. This month in Osaka, Japan, a Dell laptop set on a table exploded in the middle of a boardroom meeting.
What's causing the battery packs to turn into fireballs? As laptops become faster and acquire more features, their batteries have to work harder. As the machines become slimmer, there's less room for ventilation. This combination increases the risk of a battery meltdown and a fire. "On an airplane, I would be very concerned about this kind of thing happening," Levy said.
Most laptop lithium ion batteries produce electricity through a chemical reaction that releases oxygen. When the oxygen reacts with one of the battery's components, it produces heat hot enough to melt the battery's membrane. That's when things turn ugly. Laptop companies have recalled more than 150,000 batteries since New Year's Day, 2005. Hewlett-Packard recalled 15,700 of them in April alone. Dell recalled 22,000 batteries in December and Apple recalled about 120,000 batteries in 2005.
Dell is looking into the matter but believes the Osaka incident was an isolated case. But George Bulat, director of hardware research at the research group IDC Canada, suggested that laptop vendors educate customers about the potential dangers.
"If you're going to be on a long-distance flight, be cognizant of the heat," he said. "If it's heating up, don't just put a pillow under it."
Via AZ Starnet
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Comments
from my point of view, the companies should be held responsible of putting people in risk of getting burned.
ok, so you want to do a mega-ultra-powerful laptop...right...then put the correspondant battery for it. don't cut costs!!!!!!!
oh, you don't know how to make it safer, because ALL batteries behave the same when it gets to all this Watts and stuff...all right..then reduce the specs of the pc until it meets those of the battery, or put a holder for ice cubes... :(
simple, huh?
it's always big companies who win, and we poor customers who face the consequences of whatever happens
if all of us said ... ok, I'm NOT BUYING a laptop ANYMORE until it doesn't burn my legs, they would be forced to find better solutions for the inmense amount of heat new laptops produce.
they just shouldn't be allowed to be on the streets
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