Dell Laptops Still Exploding

bl8n8r writes "It 'looked like fireworks, which would have been cool had it not been in my house.' said Doug Brown of Columbus, Ohio. Brown, a Network Administrator, called 911 last week when the Dell 9200 laptop burst into flames in his house. Emergency response units included two pumpers, a ladder truck, a bamalance, the HAZMAT unit, and a battalion chief. When Doug phoned Dell to inquire about liability, he was asked if he had insurance. It's not clear if Doug's laptop is one of the earlier models recalled by Dell; a Macbook is cited in the article for allegedly burning down a house in Australia as well as another instance of a suspect Dell laptop burning out a pickup truck in Nevada. If the burning battery issues are going to continue to be a problem, who's going to be responsible for losses? Insurance companies, Laptop makers, Battery vendors, and consumer negligence could presumably be cited in all cases."

Any word on...

[sugapablo (600023)]

...what MacBook model went up in flames? (He types from his MacBook.)

Insurance

[Gandalf_the_Beardy (894476)]

This is what insurance is for though - the unexpected. Surely general household cover would be sufficient? As a matter of interest is it common to bill the houseowner for the fire departments response?

Re:Insurance - not the question

[rubycodez (864176)]

insurance not the issue, liability is. anyway, silly of guy to call Dell and ask. You get a lawyer and you sue their incompetent labtop-firebomb building asses.

Re:Insurance - not the question

[MightyMartian (840721)]

Moon Crater, Afghanistan - Izur Abdul Bagdahallahabada carefully plugs in his newest incendiary device; a Dell 9200 laptop.

"By the will of Allah, the infidels have provided the means of their own destruction." Bagdahallahabada says. "We must be careful, of course, that it does not burn down our own houses." he cautions. "My brother, may Allah give him dozens of greased up virgins in heaven, was using a Macbook, and it sent him, his son and a funny little fellow with half a nose flying."

All over Afghanistan, crappy Dell laptops are being found, replacing chemical explosives and home-made gas bombs as the prime way to kill NATO forces. And it's getting worse, as this new, all-too-frightening technology is exported abroad. Just last week, three Iraqi politicians had their penises fried off when their Dell's overheated.

"We like to install WoW on them." Bagdahallahabada explains. "We give it the infidel soldiers, who play these gay, decadent fantasy characters. We wait in the bushes, and kaboom!"

NATO's current head of Afghan operations, Major General Sir Wilfred Ruck-sticks-oxbatten has seen it all too often. "We were enjoying a little porn at my command post, and the Mac laptop just exploded, sending shrapnel in all directions and burning off my bleedin' moustache. The chaps back in Edinborough claim they saw spikes on their seismometers.

Indeed, exploding Dell laptops are causing another problem. The countless number of explosions are making tracking earthquakes nearly impossible. "We had a tech convention in San Francisco last week." said Dr. Bob Underwear, USGS scientist. "Christ, we thought the whole San Andreas fault was making a bee-line for Anchorage. One of my colleagues actually shit his pants, all because seventeen Dells tried to render a 3d graph in realtime."

What the ultimate solution cannot be told. But Mr. Bagdahallahabada clearly feels there's no rush. "When all the world converts to Islam, then we'll make sure they buy HP."

Re:

[Chirs (87576)]

Sure, you can make a claim to the insurance company. Next time your insurance renewal comes up, suddenly you lose the discount for having a clean record. For myself, a claim like this would probably end up costing $2000 in deductable and increased insurance rates over the next few years.

Re:

[Achromatic1978 (916097)]

It does. Apply for a new policy. You'll be asked how many claims you've made, regardless of fault. And that number will affect your premium.

ban laptops from planes!!!

[by Anonymous Coward]

if my dell explodes on a plane, is that a suicide bombing? I'm assuming that I'd be dead, of course.

'bamalance"?!

[solafide (845228)]

I want a ride in an bamalance, myself, I'll happily have my laptop explode to get a ride.

Burst into flames != explode

[Howzer (580315)]

Batteries (you know, those little packages of reactive chemicals?) have been bursting into flames ever since they were invented.

In TFA it cites a couple of modern examples. How many laptop batteries are out there?

Hardly a plague of battery burnin's.

Reminds me of SARS -- you remember, that disease that killed a couple hundred people in 2003 -- which basically shut down Asia for 6 months. Everyone suddenly forgot that the regular old "flu" kills 100,000 people every single year.

If we're gonna panic about "things that cause fatal fires" I'd be stomping on cigarette manufacturers before I went after the company that didn't even make the battery that caught on fire.

Cue 200+ comments to the tune of "I used to trust Dell but now..."

Can we get a new tune up in here?

Just because Dell didn't make the battery

[Laebshade (643478)]

Just because Dell didn't make the battery, doesn't mean they're not liable. Dell sold him a complete unit, which came with the battery in question (assuming he wasn't using a replacement battery, DNRFTA). Continuing the bad car analogies that roam the savage wastelands of Slashdot: if you bought a used car, under warranty, from a dealer, and a part broke that just happened to be a third-party part (happens often on used cars), would you be ok with the dealer telling you you're SOL? Yeah, I didn't think

Re:Burst into flames != explode

[Draek (916851)]

Batteries (you know, those little packages of reactive chemicals?) have been bursting into flames ever since they were invented.

which is another reason to use Sony's sugar-powered batteries. If the thing bursts into flames, at least you'll get a nice dose of caramel =D

Does the TSA still let Dell laptops on planes?

[RichMan (8097)]

seriously, it looks like they are more of a proven hazard than water

Let's be CLEAR on this

[erroneus (253617)]

It's all about the Sony batteries. It's misleading to say "Dell" or "Macbook." They (and many other makers) are using Sony batteries.

Re:

[Headcase88 (828620)]

So in effect they outsourced their battery production to Sony. They're still responsible for the final product and they have chosen to continue using Sony batteries after several have exploded.

I don't recall people having much patience for companies whose games used particularly bad DRM made by other companies, I think this falls in the same category. Similarly, If x outsources their tech support to shitty company y (to reduce costs), people will still blame x for providing shitty tech support.

That said

Fragmented Drives Contributing to the Overheat?

[by Anonymous Coward]

A client of mine asked me to fix his Dell laptop, which was overheating and shutting down to fix the problem. This was before the exploding batteries were in the news.

First of all DO NOT turn off the automatic shut down of the laptop when the processor reaches a certain temperature to fix this problem.

Deleting enough off the drive to defragment it fixed the issue and it stopped overheating. First I had to put the laptop on a metal barbeque frame so it would be cool enough and stay on long enough to defragment it.

Kind of a scary task for your boss to give you now that I think about it... but this was months before it was on the news. I don't know if this is the same issue exactly but I wanted to bring it up.

Re:Fragmented Drives Contributing to the Overheat?

[Zaphod-AVA (471116)]

I'd be willing to bet it has more to do with the fan optimization then the 7200 drive. Granted, they produce more heat, but the cooling system in the laptop should be able to tolerate it.

This fellow has written some decent, small footprint software that lets a user directly manage the fans and Intel Speedstep settings on many Dell laptop models. Anyone using a Dell laptop that gets a bit warm should check it out.

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html [diefer.de]

Huh?

[MightyMartian (840721)]

Consumer negligence? How is the consumer negligent if these guys keep manufacturing batteries that go supernova? I own a low-end HP laptop, and it can get incredibly hot as well. It now has to be sent in for servicing, I suspect that the temperature eventually fried the board. It's under warranty for another couple of months, but I have to fork out over $200 for a year's extended warranty on it. For those kinds of prices, I ought to be leasing them. The growing popularity of laptops have made the manufacturers lazy. They're cutting corners, producing substandard products that are not only more prone to failure, but may very well be dangerous. They'll argue "We're trying to keep the prices down", but that's the same argument Mattel uses for using substandard Chinese factories to produce toys that can potentially poison millions of children. Frankly, I think the time has come to seriously bone-up consumer protection laws. Massive fines, the industry paying for government inspections, and the like. Manufacturers have proven incapable or unwilling to adequately protect the consumer, and we should start nailing their bottom lines severely, so that the fucking shareholders, who seem eager to profit from the crap their companies produce, aren't feeling more directly the pain. Fining Dell or Apple a few hundred million dollars the first time, and then quadruple the second time, will probably raise the price of laptops, but at least we won't be sent out overheating crap.

Self Destruct Could be a Useful feature...

[MrSteveSD (801820)]

as long as long as you can control it, and as long as it has a cool sounding countdown.

Down South ...

[wsanders (114993)]

... a 'Bamalance is a pickup truck, a 3 x 6 foot piece of plywood, two EMT's named Jethro, and a bottle of moonshine for antiseptic AND anaesthetic.

Re:Not just a macbook

[bkr1_2k (237627)]

Actually the enclosures were designed to specifically take the heat away from the components to a [metal] frame that had a larger surface area. It felt hotter to the user but kept the components inside cooler than a plastic case would have.

Re:Editors?!?

[cooley (261024)]

There used to be this funny audio clip circulating around of a 911 call (or a comedian pretending to make one, I can't remember which) where a guy hits a deer with his car. He puts the deer into his car (he's gonna use the meat) but it soon wakes up and kicks the shit out of him. He calls 911 from a pay-phone to request a "bambalance" (the rest of the call is equally eloquent).

That is, I *hope* the guy is alluding to the old clip, and not seriously trying to spell "ambulance". It's possible, though, that in regards to your post above "2" answers "a"....

Re:Editors?!?

[tomhudson (43916)]

You mean this one ... [dow-sniper.net]

Re:

[haakondahl (893488)]

Now I know what the rock band Ram Jam was saying.
Whoo-oa black betty, bamalance!
Who-ooo-oa black betty ba,alance!
[repeats a lot]

Re:Concerned...

[Farmer Tim (530755)]

If you're not already wearing asbestos underwear while reading /., you're not doing it right.

Re:

[guitaristx (791223)]

<singing>Whoa-oh, blackened notebook, bam-ba-lam! Whoa-oh, blackened notebook, bam-ba-lam!</singing>