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Alan Cox's Exploding Laptop

Posted by Zonk on Sun Sep 24, 2006 02:26 AM
from the a-famous-exploding-laptop dept.
IBM It's funny. Laugh. Sony Hardware
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.'"
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Alan Cox's Exploding Laptop 25 Comments More /

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  • His own fault... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Pink Tinkletini (978889) on Sunday September 24 2006, @02:31AM (#16172801) Homepage
    ...for buying an IBM ThinkPad, notorious for their unreliability. Perhaps he should have considered an Apple or Dell instead.

    • Re:His own fault... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AKAImBatman (238306) * <akaimbatman@NOsPaM.gmail.com> on Sunday September 24 2006, @02:47AM (#16172871) Homepage Journal
      Perhaps he should have considered an Apple or Dell instead.

      Or perhaps he should have bought his battery in shrinkwrap from a reputable dealer rather than getting an after-market battery off of eBay? Even if it's a "genuine" IBM, for all he knows he ended up with a recall unit that somehow (*cough*) got resold on the open market.

      There are some things you DO NOT trust after-market vendors for. One of those things happens to be a highly explosive Lithium Ion battery pack. There are enough problems with the first party units to give pause to anyone even considering third party units. Getting off of eBay? Now that's just asking for trouble. :-/

      • Re:His own fault... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 24 2006, @03:32AM (#16173035)
        The problem is that the "reputable dealers" have ridiculous markups on replacement parts. You can get a digital camera battery for $40 or for $4. For most people the $4 batteries work just the same and don't fail. Actually I am under the impression that more name brand batteries have been the cause of laptop fires than others, perhaps because they are supposed to be the best performing batteries, so they have to cut more corners than generics. One thing which could really help the situation is standardization: It would bring prices down by enabling competition and reducing the number of different battery packs a manufacturer needs to support. That would pretty much eliminate the need or desire to buy off-brand batteries.

      • Re:His own fault... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by toQDuj (806112) on Sunday September 24 2006, @04:00AM (#16173131) Homepage Journal
        Hmm, yes, quite like the Exploding Nokia batteries, indistinguishable from genuine Nokia batteries (according to Nokia), but fake batteries nonetheless (according to Nokia again).

        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:His own fault... (Score:5, Funny)

      by pchan- (118053) on Sunday September 24 2006, @05:06AM (#16173321) Journal
      Think of this as a learning experience If Linux had implemented BeOS's is_computer_on_fire() [tycomsystems.com]* system call, he would have been able to log the situation, send an email to his friend to alert the authorities, and shut down cleanly.

      *Yes, it's actually in the OS.

    • Re:His own fault... (Score:4, Informative)

      by arivanov (12034) on Sunday September 24 2006, @08:32AM (#16174035) Homepage
      RTFA: he bought the battery off eBay. Nuff said, no need to say more, move along.

  • Then the insurance guy says... (Score:5, Funny)

    by creimer (824291) on Sunday September 24 2006, @02:31AM (#16172805) Homepage
    "What? Exploding laptop and you're running linux? Oh, we don't cover that."

    • Re:Then the insurance guy says... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Almost-Retired (637760) on Sunday September 24 2006, @03:21AM (#16172993)
      "What? Exploding laptop and you're running linux? Oh, we don't cover that."

      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

  • Did Sony know about the batteries? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Juggler9 (653684) on Sunday September 24 2006, @03:00AM (#16172915)
    Question: With all of the exploding batteries lately (Apple, Dell, Toshiba, IBM/Lenovo (possibly), etc. Have you seen any reports of Sony laptops exploding?

    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. ;)

  • Wait 'til the FAA sees this... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by junk (33527) on Sunday September 24 2006, @03:20AM (#16172985) Homepage
    With the current trend in battery explosions for laptops, I wonder how long until all laptops are considered explosive devices and aren't allowed to be used on planes. Perhaps we should start using things that are more stable. Like radioactive material or internal combustion engines. Ooh! Or we could all get neat little hand cranks!

    What am I going to do on my flight to Germany now?

  • IBM Tech Support (Score:5, Funny)

    by spoonboy42 (146048) on Sunday September 24 2006, @03:30AM (#16173027)
    We regret to inform you, Mr. Cox, that since you were operating with an unsupported software configuration (i.e. Linux) we can not offer you support in regards to your issue (spontaneous incendiary explosion). Thank you for purchasing an IBM thinkpad.

    Sincerely,
    IBM Tech Support

  • Heh. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Square Snow Man (985909) on Sunday September 24 2006, @03:44AM (#16173081)
    Coming Soon Laptops On A Plane!

  • "unexploded" batteries (Score:5, Funny)

    by D4C5CE (578304) on Sunday September 24 2006, @03:57AM (#16173117)
    I also took the other two unexploded battery cells out
    Now that's one nice word they've come up with, to distinguish the two categories of battery found in laptops. ;-)

  • how long? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mennucc1 (568756) <d3@tonelli.sns.it> on Sunday September 24 2006, @05:19AM (#16173359) Homepage Journal
    If a battery is defective and may explode, how long would it take ? For example, suppose you buy one replacement lithium battery nowadays; and you use it for X months; may you say "I have used it for X months, it did not explode, so it is not defective" ? Or, otherwise, is it a defect that may show up in a random moment in the future? Does anyone here at /. know?

    • Re:Data Recover (Score:5, Informative)

      by Beryllium Sphere(tm) (193358) on Sunday September 24 2006, @03:00AM (#16172911) Homepage Journal
      They handle fire- and smoke-damaged equipment all the time.

      At the risk of being arrested and taken to a home for the criminally obvious, don't breathe any of the smoke from an exploding battery. Some formulations burn into chemicals that you don't want anywhere near you, such as hydrofluoric acid [internatio...eryinc.com]. It's not that strong an acid but it's remarkably destructive to flesh. If you do get a whiff of smoke go to the emergency room even if you feel OK.

      • Re:Laptop? (Score:5, Funny)

        by OldManAndTheC++ (723450) on Sunday September 24 2006, @03:46AM (#16173087)

        they aren't designed to be used on laps or any other surface

        Drat. Now I'll have to go shopping for a surface-less table. Perhaps "Klein Bottles-R-Us" has what I need...

    • Re:wouldn't it be ironic (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Gleng (537516) on Sunday September 24 2006, @12:08PM (#16175605)
      wouldn't it be ironic if he was masturbating and his cock also exploded?

      No, Alanis, it would be a coincidence. It would be ironic if he was working on a battery status monitoring program when it exploded.

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