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Portables IBM Hardware IT

IBM Recalls 553,000 Laptop Power Units 136

Posted by CowboyNeal from the if-apple-can-do-it dept.
qewl writes "The 56-watt adapters can overheat, cause damage to the circuit board and melt through the case, the company and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. About 225,000 of the adapters are being recalled in the United states. The power adapters were shipped mostly with IBM ThinkPad i Series, ThinkPad 390 and 240 Series and a limited number of ThinkPad s Series laptop computers and have the part number 02K6549, the agency said."
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IBM Recalls 553,000 Laptop Power Units More

IBM Recalls 553,000 Laptop Power Units

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  • woah (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 02, 2004 @05:52PM (#10144283)
    Looks like IBM has been working a little too closely with Apple.. it's starting to rub off on them.

    • Re:woah (Score:5, Funny)

      by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:10PM (#10144439) Journal
      Apple and IBM's problems are nothing. It's Dell that is the reining "inferno" king.

      Monitors, Desktops, Notebooks, batteries, power supplies. If you can name it, Dell has made it, and it's caught on fire...


      • Yeah you really need to watch out for the Dell Pinto.


        *BOOM!!!!*
      • well, dell's market share is pretty good. that's a very succesful business model you cant deny. :D
      • Well I Use my dell moniter as a space heater (seriously, when my heater broke by leaving my moniter on it would heat my dorm room to 70 degrees when it was in the 20's outside) Sometimes generating a lot of heat is a good thing......
    • Not Apple the Mission Impossible guys......This laptop will self destruct in 10 sec....POOF!!
    • Apple's recall covered batteries less than two years old. IBM's recall is for batteries 4 to 5 years old. Does this mean a) Apple's failed sooner or b) IBM took longer to admit their batteries were catching fire?

  • I thought that... (Score:2, Redundant)

    by neiffer ( 698776 ) *
    ...was every laptop. Everytime I put my Dell on my lap it burns me. That sucker is hot!

    • Re:I thought that... (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Thats because the fan duct under the upper, left corner of the laptop gets blocked by your leg dude ;)

      Same happens on my laptop, which is why i built myself a spiffy little metal box thingy that can be attached with a little rubber band.

      Works wonders, increases battery life too, since the fan wont have to be on constantly to try to push some air thru the blocked duct.

    • You do it how often now?

    • Re:I thought that... (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      A new /. low: if you're not going to read the article, even the summary, at least read the entire title before responding!

      These are the AC DC adapters that you plug into the wall. It has no business being on your lap.

    • Re:I thought that... (Score:4, Informative)

      by dasmegabyte ( 267018 ) <das@OHNOWHATSTHISdasmegabyte.org> on Thursday September 02, 2004 @11:14PM (#10146168) Homepage Journal
      Got an ice cold Aluminum powerbook on my chest that begs to differ with you.

      Want a cool lappy? You have to buy one that breathes (good ventilation, metal case, good board layout), shuts off the hard drive often as it can and one that has a real mobile processor such as a Pentium M or G4. You can't buy a machine with a desktop chip like the Athlon XP or P4 laptops and expect it not to be a fusion reactor...the price you pay for a little extra speed is third degree burns, not to mention heavier batteries with decreased life. The Powerbook battery is something like half a pound and you can keep an extra one in your pocket (they're smaller than palm pilots).

  • I felt... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mateito ( 746185 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @05:55PM (#10144311) Homepage
    I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if 533,000 of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

  • what will happen next (Score:3, Funny)

    by virtualone ( 768392 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @05:56PM (#10144314)
    the recalled machines will be sold to gericom, who puts a new sticker on them and resells them as brand-new-bleeding-edge-desktop replacment. melting through plastic is a side effect that is expected of their machines.
    • Oh is that a new feature?
      The one I had just had this crackling sound fx from the PSU and the funny smell shortly after. Interestingly it would stay on for a couple more minutes, then I shut it down cleanly but it never came up again...

  • Ouch! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Fookin ( 652988 )
    Looks like IBM is in the hot-seat now. Thank god I don't have to worry about that with my crappy 720c.

  • I see... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So that is what that burning sensation was in my lap! And, to think, I called my girlfriend a dirty whore! Thought for sure she gave me something!

  • I Wonder.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by FiReaNGeL ( 312636 ) <.moc.liamtoh. .ta. .l3gnaerif.> on Thursday September 02, 2004 @05:58PM (#10144347) Homepage
    I wonder in how many products this kind of thing happen, but at a smaller scale, without forcing the company to do a recall. Happened with my sister's laptop power converter, causing the board to fry... oops, warranty's not valid anymore, you're screwed!

    Obligatory Fight Club reference :

    If a new car built by my company leaves Chicago traveling west at 60 miles per hour, and the rear differential locks up, and the car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside, does my company initiate a recall?

    You take the population of vehicles in the field (A) and multiply it by the probable rate of failure (B), then multiply the result by the average cost of an out-of-court settlement (C).

    A times B times C equals X. This is what it will cost if we don't initiate a recall.

    If X is greater than the cost of a recall, we recall the cars and no one gets hurt.

    If X is less than the cost of a recall, then we don't recall.

    Kinda scary when you consider cars instead of laptops...

    • Re:I Wonder.. (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You just recently saw Fight Club again and were dying to make that reference, right? Right?

      *grin*
    • What's funnier than the reference itself, is that the comment was moderated "insightful"

    • The real equation would include the estimated time for the lawsuits to affect income caused by negative public perception and the time before corporate leadership retires.

      It really doesn't matter if the company sinks when you're out the door and not legally liable.

  • Boring called. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:00PM (#10144368)
    It wants this story back.

  • Wonder if they shipped any (Score:3, Funny)

    by Marxist Hacker 42 ( 638312 ) * <seebert42@gmail.com> on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:00PM (#10144375) Homepage Journal
    to China [slashdot.org]? Might make as good of a heat source as the uranium.... :-)

  • weird (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kg_o.O ( 802342 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:02PM (#10144387)
    The computers were sold between January 1999 and August 2000 They received SIX reports after 4 years since releasing this stuff and they're recalling the whole series? Weird.. A power adapter CAN break after 4 years of intense usage.. it just happens, right? :)

    • Re:weird (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Carnildo ( 712617 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:22PM (#10144521) Homepage Journal
      Yes, a power adapter can break after four years of usage. It should not break in such a way that it presents a fire hazard.
      • Yes, a power adapter can break after four years of usage. It should not break in such a way that it presents a fire hazard.

        That depends on how lucky (or unlucky) you are. I'd like to know how the Product Safety guys tested this piece of hardware. I don't suppose IBM decided to recall ~500k adapters just because 6 of them broke in a bit more 'entertaining' fashion ;)

    • Re:weird (Score:3, Interesting)

      by robogun ( 466062 )
      All IBM laptops use 16 volt power supplies and have the same plug. They have been inching ever up in current output, but it is still possible to use those old adapters on a fairly modern laptop. I have one running a 240X right now, 24/7 deleting spam.

      I had a brick melt on a WD external hard drive recently. They were so cheap, there was no power switch, so to turn it on or off, you had to pull out the power jack, which is a complicated +5 +12v 4-pin thing which looks like an s-video jack. It simply wore ou

  • Whatever happened to single chip power supplies? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:03PM (#10144394)
    I thought we were all going to be using single chip power supplys like the Tinyswitch... they can do 240 to 5v on a chip connected directly to the mains and sink about 800ma.
    They were going to be the next big thing, and then we were all back to switched mode blocks with all their coils and components and heatsinks.

    • Re:Whatever happened to single chip power supplies (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Laptops need more than 800ma, and also dual rail. While the single chip solutions would be great for a new kind of lower power computer, conventional laptops are just too power hungry.

      Not that it won't stop people trying. Anything to minimise cost. IBM probably underspec'ed their switch mode here to save $ and look where it got them. Excess heat is the first sign you have skimped on current capacity!

      • Re:Whatever happened to single chip power supplies (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Actually 800ma at 120v = 96W. 800ma at 240v = 192W. (assuming 100% efficiency) This should be enough for some laptops I would guess. No idea what chips this guy was talking about tho.

    • Re:Whatever happened to single chip power supplies (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The biggest problem with the devices like Tinyswitch is the lack of isolation from the power line. This means when you go plug your USB connector into your computer (while touching the metal shield) and are leaning on your metal desk, you complete a circuit between the mains and ground. Not a good thing. I'll let the others calculate the typical body resistance (and power rating) to 50/60 Hz @ 110/220 volts.

      These devices are useful in applications where there is no possibility of touching any conductor con

  • blast! (Score:3, Funny)

    by tubbtubb ( 781286 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:04PM (#10144397)
    I am so sick of people stealing Apple's ideas.

  • Oops... (Score:4, Funny)

    by g-to-the-o-to-the-g ( 705721 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:05PM (#10144406) Homepage Journal
    So much for trading my PowerBook in for a Thinkpad, either way I might get burned.
    • Just keep the Powerbook. I ordered my replacement battery at 6 pm on Thursday; the new one was waiting when I got home the next day. They covered shipping both ways via DHL.

  • Part Number isn't everything (Score:5, Informative)

    by thpr ( 786837 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:10PM (#10144446)
    The power adapters ... have the part number 02K6549, the agency said.

    The computers were sold between January 1999 and August 2000

    Note that IBM shipped a revised product under the SAME part number after August 2000... if you think you qualify, make sure to look at the details - it has to have HOLLOW pins look here [ibm.com] to be part of the recall.

    • Also, these have to be hitting EOL if they haven't already... We are in 2004...

    • That explains why it won't accept my power brick serial number on their website, even though it has the same part number, and is for a 1161U.

      Back into the plug you go...

      Yaz.

    • As I'm working on a thinkpad 390X, I had to check my power supply. I can pick it up without burning my fingers (just), but it is the wrong part number. Phew!

      Of course it doesn't make up for me charging Alkaline batteries in a NiMH charger yesterday, only to find "wet" batteries when I pulled them out. No overheating involved, just a good leak of very caustic goo into my charger. Disassembled and washed/scrubbed immediatly. Only visible effect are a shallow dent in the board where the acid sat, and a s
      • Funny story. I got my dad a Canon digital camera for his birthday a few years back, complete with charger and rechargable batteries from wal-mart.

        He was complaining a few months later about the seemingly short battery life.... turns out, he threw away the rechargables (since they looked similar to the alkalines) and starting charging the alkalines. I'm impressed that one set of alkalines didn't have issues with discharge/charge.... must be a pretty fast charger you had to get the alkalines up to giving u

  • not the same company (Score:2, Interesting)

    by tubbtubb ( 781286 )
    Just if you were curious, the IBM and Apple batteries are not manufactured by the same company. Apple's are manufactured by LG Chem, Ltd. of South Korea, IBM's are manufactured by Delta Electronics Inc. of Taiwan. Some other information of possible interest: I own one of the Apple laptop batteries to be recalled and have never had any problems with it. The surface near the cpu does get quite hot, however. Not unbearable though.
  • Sources inside IBM leaked this week the development of a new tanning bed using 100% recycled materials, codenamed "Thinkpad".

  • oh GOOD (Score:4, Funny)

    by i love pineapples ( 742841 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:16PM (#10144493) Homepage
    The burning sensation's from the LAPTOP... I was wondering how the hell a geek like myself (can't get laid to save my life) caught an STD...
    • (can't get laid to save my life)

      I'm a girl.

      These don't compute.

      • Re:oh GOOD (Score:2, Informative)

        by i love pineapples ( 742841 )
        It isn't just boy geeks who have the tendency to go "EEP!" and retreat to the warm glow of their computer when a member of the opposite sex talks to them!

        • Re:oh GOOD (Score:3, Insightful)

          by tekrat ( 242117 )
          It isn't just boy geeks who have the tendency to go "EEP!" and retreat to the warm glow of their computer when a member of the opposite sex talks to them!

          Thank God. I thought I was the only one that screwed up. You've given me hope that maybe I'm actually a little normal.
        • I assumed girls just never talked to most of the boy geeks in here, not that it happened and they went "EEP" ;-)

        • Re:oh GOOD (Score:3, Funny)

          by Bombcar ( 16057 )
          EEP!

    • Re:oh GOOD (Score:3, Informative)

      by Moloch666 ( 574889 )
      Judging by your pictures...
      I'd hit it.
      • Ditto. Being on slashdot has to add 2 or three points right there.
      • Except she's from New Jersey. I have a with that.

        Waitaminute. it says on her homepage that she's the only one not from Jersey. nevermind. We love you Kelly!
        • Jersey! HAHAHA! Wow! Did you come up with that one yourself? HAHAHA! You must have been the first person ever to ever use that gag! And it's so true! Oh, it's funny! You, sir, are a truly hilarious comedian.
    • The new Bagle variant is going around. That is a software transmitted disease so it is possible. That's what STD stands for, right?
  • Ah, looks like they'll have piles of laptop parts to accompany their piles of Travelstar HDs. I bought a "Hitachi/IBM" Travelstar three months ago and have done two exchanges b/c each one I got gave me scrapes of death by week 2. After the 3rd one, I said screw the warranty--I pitched it in the trash--and bought a different brand. Gee, I wonder why IBM got rid of theird HD business. Ugh.
    • I'm amazed that people are still buying the Deathstars..

      You should have looked around on the intarweb for reviews, they're all bad and mention the click of death.
    • someone got unlucky. I've had my hitachi deathstar going a year now, no problems aside from the pin I managed to pull off of the PCB (was 39, activity light) that made the computer hang if the drive was set to master (well, until I removed the pin) Then I also have the hitachi travelstar in my karma, that's been dropped a few times, no problems yet.
    • Got back from vacation, and lost my notebook's travelstar and a few days later a deskstar in my desktop (which had already failed under warranty 9 months earlier). One week, unplugged from everything, should not kill a drive (and they don't run 24x7).

  • Hot! (Score:4, Funny)

    by HedonismBot ( 742920 ) <guiller.gmail@com> on Thursday September 02, 2004 @06:26PM (#10144550)
    That's just the kind of thing you want on top of your lap...

    There's smoke coming out of your crotch...Is the power unit in your laptop melting or are you just REALLY happy to see me?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • I have a thinkpad that overheats. It's pretty clogged and could do with a clean, but I'm not sure how to take the thing apart without breaking it. (If someone knows where I can find a service manual ...?)

      As a workaround for the heat problems, I use three rubber doorstops in a triangular formation to prop it up when I'm working on it. I haven't had a single heat-related crash since, and doorstops aren't much hassle to carry around in the bag. :-)
  • What the Hell? I thought IBM tested these things before they shipped them. 'Melts through the case' man I wonder who that happened to. I like having my laptop with me as much as I can, but fusing the laptop to my lap is taking it a little far.
    • I hope one of these wasn't the 100lb laptop mentioned in yesterdays article.

      Zar: "What's that burning in the sky?"

      Chron: "Oh thats just another laptop from earth just ignore it."

      Zar: "Wish they'd stop"

  • The PSUs for desktop PCs seem to get worse and worse. The cheaper they get, the less protectional components they include. A few months ago I had an overheated PSU burn out itself, the main board, and basically everything connected to it (only the RAM and the floppy drive survived). A few fuses or voltage-limiting zeners could have saved my PC. Too bad the PSUs all look the same from the outside. The only good thing about it was that my current computer plays Doom3 nicely :-p
  • IBM shares closed up 35 cents to $84.57 on the New York Stock Exchange.

    There's nothing like fucking up and getting paid for it.

  • Why IBM did this. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ubiquitin ( 28396 ) * on Thursday September 02, 2004 @07:19PM (#10144888) Homepage Journal
    They get a marketing database filled full of people who were using older (late nineties) hardware that would be ripe for upgrades. At the same time that they're collecting the data, it makes IBM look responsible, it gives IBM a chance to talk to their customers with said older hardware, and casts FUD on the reliability of equipment that is out of warranty. The true cost of the power adapters in bulk is easily less than $5. Hell, shipping the thing out probably cost more than the adapter itself! This is timed to give IBM customer information just in time for holidays 2005. The must smell a replacement season coming on. When it comes to direct/consumer marketing, you can't be too paranoid.
  • obviously this is the opening SCO has been looking for.
  • The chairman of China, pointing out the obvious Chernobylesque failures of the US Capitalism system, has vowed to only use "safe" power adapters in all its laptops...
  • Great... This is just what i need. I work on hte IBM Thinkpad Helpdesk. I just know were gonna be flodded with calles from every one that had a thinkpad, affected or not, is gonna call in, ignore the "how to tell" and wanna just wanna "make shure". Not that i reall blame them, i mean, burning and melting, jeez, but its gonna give us at least a week or two of 20+ sec hold times.
  • have the part number 02K6549

    Mine says 02K6550. SAFE!

  • Lap Heat (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xombo ( 628858 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @08:42PM (#10145328)
    Laptop reviews should include bottom temperatures for "lap" users.
  • So lets see... Laptop running Windows 98.. still being used? well.. If it hasn't melted yet you should be safe.. might as well get a new computer instead :)
    • I use an old Thinkpad in the kitchen as a surfing machine, good for looking up recipes, etc. Running Fedora Core 2 on it with XFCE as the desktop. A little slow (it is a 333Mhz P2 with 160MB RAM) but it does the job, I wasn't expecting to play Doom3 or anything on it but for basic surfing, email and even some development work it is well suited to the task.
  • My Thinkpad is sitting on my lap right now as I'm typing this, and the temperature is perfectly norm... AAAAAH! IT BURRRRRRRRNS! FOR THE LOVE OF NI, PLEASE SOMEONE STOP THE BURNING IN MY CROTCH!

    ***

    Seriously, that would suck though, huh?

  • what is it with laptop power packs? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by v1 ( 525388 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @09:52PM (#10145731) Homepage Journal
    They seem to all be made poorly lately. My wallstreet powerbook's adapter was recalled. The first run of ibook adapters (frequently referred to as "UFOs") had issues with their AC cord and were quickly replaced with the new white bricks, and now this recall from IBM? You'd think they'd put a little more effort into safety testing for something like this.

    They make these packs as small and light as possible, yet they have to be able to pump up the laptop's battery very rapidly, usually while the laptop is also drawing power from the pack. Without careful safety testing, some ppl are gonna get their houses burnt down if this recklessness keeps up.

    A friend of mine almost managed to burn down his house yesterday by way of a laptop pack setting the electrical outlet on fire while he was at work. While that was likely more caused by a site wiring fault than by the pack or computer, it really underscores just how much juice some of these packs draw, and how easy it is for a minor design flaw to prove disastrous.

  • YES!!! (Score:3, Informative)

    by maxdamage ( 615250 ) on Thursday September 02, 2004 @10:29PM (#10145900) Journal
    This is the one I have! Im so happy cause mine crapped out on me like the year I got it and I just got a new one. This is so great, because I didnt throw that one away, now I can get another new one for free!! (the new one I got after was model 02k6543)... Interesting story, first hand acount of this fire problem happening. This is the ps that all the teachers use(d) at my high school like 5 years ago and one caught fire and the building had to be evacuated. That was like 3 years ago though.
  • ..."The computers were sold between January 1999 and August 2000".... I would think that the users would probably have found out by now...

  • I work for a large Toronto Employer *cough*...and we've been ordering IBM Desktop (8194-E4U) form factor NetVista models since last summer...almost EVERY hard drive in these puppies failed...the Maxtor slimline 40 GB drives (sub-1 inch).

    We just got the callback for mass-replacement that we've been asking for. We've so far seen 60- 70% of our drives fail.

    This kind of thing should not be surprising though as large companies are likely to have large orders for third-party parts and materials. When once sou

  • Me looks down at keboard.....IBM After fliping it over it reads: Part No 1391401 yada yada Model M IBM Corp 1984 Salvaged from IBM 286 PS2 computer. And still works perfectly.

  • The wheel turns, same old story... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by atcurtis ( 191512 ) on Friday September 03, 2004 @06:53AM (#10147800) Homepage Journal

    The PSU is always the centre of many 'issues' partly because the task of designing it usually falls to the most junior engineer who has very little experience.

    Why? Because they are boring and 'un-sexy'.

    So it is not surprising that throughout modern times, the laptop powersupply brick has had more product recalls than anything else. On many an occasion, I have pried one apart and inspected its innards to see that there has been factory mods done to it with wires, globs of solder and tracks cut with a crude knife.

    I don't expect the situation to improve either.

  • 24 hour test (Score:3, Interesting)

    by thrill12 ( 711899 ) * on Friday September 03, 2004 @07:10AM (#10147840) Journal
    Somehow I fail to see the point of this recall. In normal 24 hour test, a huge percentage of defects is already found. Seeing that these laptops have been sold around 2000, 4 years ago, I simply do not understand why anyone having trouble with that particular AC-adapter hasn't already experienced it.
    Probably that person either used his guarantee, or he - unluckily - met with the problem 1 or 2 years after the ending of his guarantee. In any case, people are in the majority of cases either out of luck (they didn't have any guarantee, and let the machine be repaired themselves or trashed/sold it) or it simply ain't necessary anymore.

    So what's the function of this recall if noone is going to use it ? Prevent liability ?
  • IBM hasn't made any of those laptop models in years. Why the big recall now all of a sudden?

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