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Overheated, pocketed PSP burns through child's pants

Posted Feb 7, 2008 at 12:35AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PSP Tags: Michigan, Sony

A word of warning: you may want to refrain from placing your Sony PlayStation Portable in your pocket, even if it's switched off.

Harold Clay of Warner Middle School in Farmington Hills, Michigan suffered second-degree burns when the PSP in his pocket caught fire and burned a hole in his pants.

Fortunately, a teacher was somehow able to separate the portable from Clay in time. Clay's mother, Sheila, reported how her son managed to avoid greater injury during the fiery accident:

He said it wasn't a gradual heat. It really started heating up. He's always been taught, burn- fire- smoke, you drop and you roll. So, he was in his band class and he dropped and rolled.

Ironically, the game inside the player when the incident occurred was one of the titles from the Burnout series of games. Clay's parents were puzzled by the fact that the PSP was purportedly switched off the whole time.

Clay's parents said they plan to contact Sony to check if any similar incidents have been reported by other people.

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That is funny. Too bad about the kid's PSP and his leg, though. Any speculation as to whether he had an OEM or aftermarket battery, or running custom firmware? My understanding is that with the latest custom firmwares, you can't really fully shut down the PSP unless you take out the battery, otherwise it only goes to sleep mode. I could be wrong, but I thought I read that somewhere... I've got the startup animation thing disabled on mine, so I'm not sure if I'm cold booting it or just waking it from sleep mode.

# hmmm — soopergooman 2008-02-07 02:07

I think he made a cheap man's pandora. lol silly kid prolly used duct tape! I hope he didn't get burned to bad. I feel bad for that psp.

# oops — chris m 2008-02-07 02:10

really shouldn't laugh but jthe irony is just too strong

anyway my psp has only ever been warm to the touch after hours of playing so i have to agree with battery or f/w, then again maybe just maybe a fauly unit

# sleep mode... — FreePlay 2008-02-07 02:17

is built into every firmware, back to 1.00.

# lol — Binary 2008-02-07 02:20

He said it wasn't a gradual heat. It really started heating up. He's always been taught, burn- fire- smoke, you drop and you roll. So, he was in his band class and he dropped and rolled.

LMFAO ^

Only way my psp gets hot if I use wi-fi alot but not too hot. just good to warm your hands on a snow day

# re: — Guest 2008-02-07 02:50

They were minor burns, don't worry. The kid went back to school after he got medical treatment. :)

# Not so uncommon — skoomaeater 2008-02-07 02:58

I had a similar incident with my PSP. I took it to work with 89% battery and was planning on using it during lunch to play some more Monster Hunter Freedom 2 goodness. My leg started to warm up, but I was using the fryer, so I didn't pay attention to it. My leg was really warming up, so I pulled out the PSP to check, and it was at 5% battery. This happened within about 20 minutes and it was seriously hot. It actually started to warp my battery door. Needless to say, I removed the battery and went back to work. When I got home, I charged it and it works fine.

# re: — Guest 2008-02-07 03:02

There's Mr and Mrs. Clay's answer, I suppose.

# So what — mohammed-f 2008-02-07 04:20

So what, it should just work fine, aslong as it's not bricked...

# Are u serious!!? — The Obsidian 2008-02-07 05:10

I sure am happy the kids allright but wow

# Classic or Slim? — xyal_zx 2008-02-07 05:52

I bet it was a classic. There was a story like this back when PSP first started out. Except it was on somone's night stand.

I find it hard to believe. This story comes out right as Nintendo starts to suffer the first sales drop in over a year.

Remember kiddies dont put your PSP in your pocket or you'll burn Willy.

Ya Im skeptical to say the least. Why else would a story like this hit the news.

# I suspect the PSP was on — tobyo1 2008-02-07 05:59

he could've easily left in on with the thought he'd turned it off, or the switch could've been acidently flicked. Hopefully Sony will have the decency to give clay another PSP for free (with a new copy Burnout if the game was damaged) and some extra money for nearly killing/seriously injuring one of their consumers.

# PSP or PSP Slim/Lite? — Nezumi 2008-02-07 06:41

I don't know how people can function properly with a Phat PSP in their pants, and seriously, why put it in there? I had someone break 3 4GB chips and 2 Phat PSPs in 7 months when working with it in his pants.

# Likely due to human stupidity — Jason L 2008-02-07 06:43

The idiot probably tried to hard mod it to Pandora and screwed up. That, and the fact that the PSP was probably only in sleep mode and not shut off, would go along way to explaining what happened. Most people don't know there is a difference between a PSP in sleep mode and a PSP which has been shut off.

I've been carrying around my PSP in my pocket nearly every day for a year and I've never had anything strange happen to it.

# Omfg — Chipsoft 2008-02-07 07:22

Hard modded pandora battery...

# Could be a new snack — Chipsoft 2008-02-07 07:29

Ps. this could be a nice snack, Fried PSP ^^

# Actually... — kittykat 2008-02-07 08:27

If you are not too short or thin then you can easily pull off having a phat PSP in your pocket. I mean, there is not much size difference between the two systems. I carried mine in my pocket while doing heavy labor at the pace of a benny hill episode, bumped into steel girders with the PSP taking the full impact, and slipped and fell on some ice a few times but the Phat PSP survived all of this without more than a scratch or two. In fact, my Phat PSP did not break until the motherboard was scratched whiule replacing a defective part.

# wow — usernameforever 2008-02-07 09:23

That happens when in slee mode. My psp was lying on my bed and a blanket was over it. I had just put it into slee mode and left it there for an hour+ when i came back to it, i picked it up and dropped it immediatly. It was extremely hot, on the verge fire it felt like. but mine was plugged in too i think.....

# Yeah, I know — Vipre77 2008-02-07 10:00

I know sleep mode has been in every firmware. I bought my PSP back in July '05 when they were still shipping with firmware 1.50. What I'm not sure about is if sleep mode is all you get with the last few M33 firmwares (i.e.: I thought I read that the newer firmwares won't allow you to fully shutdown all the way, and instead you only get sleep mode unless you take out the battery.)

I just verified on my 3.90 M33 installation that it does, in fact, fully power down. I skipped a few releases in the middle. Went from 3.40 OE-A to 3.80 M33-4 and now to 3.90 M33. Either I read wrong or the problem has been fixed.

Regardless, I still wonder if the unit this kid had was actually powered off, as he claims, or if it was in sleep mode.

# I wonder — Korlithiel 2008-02-07 10:19

It seems possible it was a third part battery, or that this was one of the older batteries from before Sony had to do that massive recall.

As for it being off, I've met more then enough people who thought putting the system to sleep was turning it off.

# had to be a 3rd party battery — CrYpT-WeeD 2008-02-07 11:58

i have phat psp from launch 1.00 fw now running 3.90m33 and i still use the orginal psp battery that came with it already like 3 years old almost and like binary mine only gets slightly warm when i use wifi alot. best thing also is invest in a case for it i recomend logitech case the one that holds 2x games and 2x memory cards even if by some chance it does get that hot it have to burn trough case first.

# To all the morons saying hardmodded pandora — NA1NSXR 2008-02-07 12:21

WhyTF would this kid be walking around in school with a hardmodded pandora sitting in his system with a game in it at the same time. A middleschooler with a UMD in the drive says all original Sony stuff to me.

I don't know why we have people pointing at hardmodded pandoras, CFW, or even sleep mode.

I have even less of an idea why people would use the logic "I've carried my PSP in my pants in sleep mode all my life and I have no problems so this kid is probably a moron". That makes so little sense to me that I do not even know how to respond.

# WTF — Sr_Moska 2008-02-07 12:38

I alwasy have my PSP in my pocket when I go out!

i live in Monterrey, Mexico and in summer whet get temperatures of 44°C and I always uses my psp to listen to music by foot or in my car (most recently). I have my PSP since 2005 and I have never EVER caught fire lol

# damn i was high or what — Sr_Moska 2008-02-07 14:17

I tried to say "we get temperatures"

# GGGRR — zaniar 2008-02-07 14:36

i always charge my battery at night, i keep my psp under my pillow, and in the morning its usually too hot to touch so i dont do that n e more

# Thank you. — skoomaeater 2008-02-07 14:37

Seriously, thank you.

# You just did! — jbardi 2008-02-07 14:40

Hmm, correct me if I'm wrong, but what you typed was a response!

However nice it is to run the defense of the poor kid burned by his PSP, and how much you want to blame the big, bad electronics giant, we have to look at statistics.

The PSP has been around since 2004, and it is now 2008. In all this time, nobody has had a PSP blow up, catch fire, burn their house down or melt into their leg until this report.

We all know that kids tend to be clumsy, have no concept for the value of a dollar and therefore usually do not appreciate what they have, which often results in mis-use and abuse of expensive electronic equipment.

For instance, my brother had the grand idea of buying my niece a cell phone at the age of 10. Rather than buying a kid rated, durable 2 way radio system, he gets her an expensive cell phone. Well, now 4 cell phones later in a matter of as many months, he is finally seeing the error of his ways.

My point, after all of this prattling on, is that as nobody has been seriously harmed and no reports have come out of ANY similar cases since its public release in 2004, it stands to assume that the problem was more than likely user fault rather than device fault... that is all we are saying!

I feel bad for the kid, nobody wants to hear about someone getting hurt... but my money is on it being his own fault!

# lol.. — AlBo4LiF3 2008-02-07 15:34

rofl i was laughin my @$$ off when my friend told me this at school today.i just cant help it. how isnt that funny seriously.. srry for the kid but cmon now... when had u heard about a kids psp blowing up in his pocket before? i mean cmon.. i hadnt even heard of anybodys psp even blowing up or setting into flames without making it blow up or set into flames. his fault he keeps it in his pocket. i keep mine in a hard kind of case with a zipper on my jacket pocket at school lol. i didnt believe my friend till i went and searched this up on google lol. to be honest.. i say its his own fault. he probs had that big ass battery from datel on it lol. sony said not to use third party batterys on the psp cause it can fry it. how the hell does the psp get hot anyway? im on my psp all the time playin socom ftb2 online and it never heats up. when the battery is dyin.. i just plug it in and continue playing. but idk.. maybe he left it on and his mom is tryin to make some money off that from sony by complainin and sueing sony for that or something. cause she said that the psp was off.. how the hell does the psp get hot when the psp is off.. he probably had it on and put it on his pocket and freakin spilled something on it or something. or his leg was sweatin like crazy and his psp got seriously heated up... this is bull to me lol. its hard to believe. ill have to see it to believe it.. lol good luck kid

# anyone else? — xCHRISx 2008-02-07 15:39

yah my psp has been dropped a million times, the faceplate has dents/cracks/breaks all over, and my psp fell into a broken toilet with water >=O. Anyways after i dried that shyt and sterilized it lmao the lcd only works 1/3 of the screen. and im going to replace it lol.

but Lately i noticed my psp gets pretty hot on the back, but not the batter side, the memory stick side. i was just wandering if anyone could pinpoint the issue? im assuming the water did sumthing to it besides the lcd but i got everything to work again perfectly so i dont know.

anyone?

# PEDO! — psporpcp 2008-02-07 16:35

PEDO PSP STRIKES!!!

That PSP was just trying to touch the little boy, it just needed a way to get through the pants first hahahahaha

# Hm — D4RK-V1P3R 2008-02-07 17:07

From what I remember

Sony had to recall some of their Li-ion batteries a few months back due to overheating..

And i THINK the psp battery is a Li-ion battery...

It sounds like an old one to me.. Ive had my psp and the only time it gets very very hot is when im using wifi.. or Overclocking it AND using wifi AND listening to music..

Its my 2nd psp though, the first one I had, i had to refund it because it stopped charging, and the battery got SUPER hot, as well as the psp charger brick itself.. So in my opinion its probably related to that..

And in middle school.. I doubt the kid was even allowed to have a PSP at school, so of course hes going to tell whoever it was off to keep himself out of trouble, and people telling him "you weren't allowed to have it on anyway". I know if I got burned my any of my electronics at my school (where they're strictly not allowed, but I use them anyway :P), I would plead my case like it was off and I was completely innocent so that I could milk Sony in court for as much as I could.

Which is probably what this kid is thinking...

Anyway.. end of my ramble lol.

# re: — Guest 2008-02-07 19:36

I don't think Clay would appreciate the snack. ^^;

# Impossible — neonn 2008-02-07 20:09

As you may see in the picture and video the battery and area were pretty much melted.

PSP Batteries are Nickel Cadmium.

Meltingpoint of Nickel: 1728K (1455 °C, 2651 °F)

Melting point of Cadmium: 594.22 K (321.07 °C, 609.93 °F)

Some batteries are lithium, melting point: 180.5 °C

Now think about that. What are the odds of his psp spontaneously combusting to a temperture of 1455 degrees Celcius. If something that how even came near to him it would litterally burn through his skin, bone, flesh, etc.

My View point is that it did not spontaneously combust in his pocket and leave a tiny burn in his pants.

# Impossible — neonn 2008-02-07 20:11

Just To add onto that. If something to that extent of heat came close to a PSP, it would turn into a puddle of goo.

# Hardmod? — _F1 2008-02-07 22:28

Pandora is not a hardmod.

# ¬_¬ — exionzero 2008-02-08 03:43

you say that now, but when you're thirty you'll have a culture of lazy sperm... they'll be too lazy to do anything useful (due to being bought up on PSP)

lol...

# soo... — sycoblast 2008-02-08 03:43

as the psp began feeling warmer in his pocket he didnt do anything :s

# Idiot — Tokimemofan 2008-02-08 04:57

PSP Batteries are Lithium Ion, NOT Nickel Cadmium, go look at your own psp battery.

the melting point of lithium doesn't matter either because it is flammable thats why those laptop batteries blow up too remember those, yeah the recall notices a while back.

# huh — JaXeRiR 2008-02-08 05:49

You can't go directly to 3.80 M33-4 from 3.40 OE-A.

# Lol? — JaXeRiR 2008-02-08 05:54

We are allowed to keep PSPs at our school.

# soo. — JaXeRiR 2008-02-08 05:55

"Hmm, my PSP feels kinda warm in my pocket... Mmm, warm.... Gagl...

# I'm wondering... — Wicked_Insider 2008-02-08 15:34

If the PSP1000 battery will do this to the slim?

I mean they didn't say what battery it was or

which system it was, just that it happened.

Need to be careful now, we don't know if it

was a 3rd party battery or not thats just

speculation at this point.

But if this was not a 3rd party battery

we may want to be careful with the

batteries we do put into the slim.

I raise this point because we now have

fat battery dpprs for the slim.

Be careful peeps.

# You know.. — Wicked_Insider 2008-02-08 15:47

I remember this as well and your right.

But then again you might also come off

as conspiracies + fanboyism.

I have a classice with original battery

and this hasn't happened to me but

I do also own a slim and I was wanting

to get a bigger battery and the fat

door for the slim.

This does cause to be a little alarmed.

# Design flaw — Wicked_Insider 2008-02-08 15:59

I have accidentally turned mine on before.

In my pocket while at work and the battery

power dropped as well. Only reason why

I found out is because I heard the auto

UMD load Starwars BFII and John Williams

orchestra is loud and recognizable.

The power switch is to lite and switches

easily but since I've been carrying it in a

case this hasn't happened again.

# jbardi — Wicked_Insider 2008-02-08 16:17

what are you... we todd did?

This has happened before, just because

you didn't hear about it doesn't mean it

didn't happen. There has been cases of

this in the past.

# maybe it was just that psp — tsujinai 2008-02-08 22:10

i always leave my psp in my pocket, never had it heat up to a point where I can't touch it though. i have both slim and phat one, charge it almost whenever at home, well, always good to be careful though for the first sign of anything strange.

# re @jaxer — evilgenius101 2008-02-09 02:47

umm, yes u can...

# Its not irony! — Neko Kyu 2008-02-10 02:04

it would, however, be ironic if the game were one about say... putting out fires or something :l

but thats sounds moar like a DS game XD

# re: — Guest 2008-02-14 02:54

Well, it was a literal "burn out," after all. ^^

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