Fire Risk From Panasonic Batteries In Sony Vaio Laptops 36
jones_supa writes: "Sony is warning about a potential fire risk in some of its Vaio Fit 11A portable notebooks (the final model under the Vaio brand, which was sold off in February). The company is asking customers to stop using this laptop model as soon as possible. Sony said it had received three reports of overheating batteries causing partial burns to Vaio computers. The company stopped selling the product at the beginning of this month, with nearly 26,000 units in the wild. The manufacturer and company responsible for the faulty batteries is Panasonic. 'A Panasonic spokeswoman confirmed the company had provided the batteries to Sony under an outsourcing contract. She declined to say which other computer makers had received Panasonic batteries, as such information is confidential. However, she said the batteries are customized according to clients' requirements and differ depending on client.'"
Re:Buy American!!! (Score:4, Informative)
Cue The Flames (Score:5, Funny)
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These deals are scorching hot. Once they're gone, they're gone.
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Shit! I left the Vaio in my Tesla.
Pray it's not bumped by a Pinto.
What's a "partial burn"? (Score:3)
...and how does it differ from a "total burn"?
Re:What's a "partial burn"? (Score:5, Funny)
Sony? Panasonic? (Score:2)
Screw you those cheap third party knockoffs.
I am going for a Sorney and a Genuine Penaphonics!
Re:No. (Score:4, Informative)
From the consumer PoV, Sony are 100% responsible.
Sony is taking full responsibility. From the article: "Sony said in a statement Friday it was identifying the affected computers by serial number and developing a program to repair or replace them."
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Came her to say this too. We use Panasonic batteries in a couple of products at work (Eneloops and Evoltas). We even managed to blow up a couple of Eneloops as we were assembling them into a pack. That was out fault though (well, the fault of the temp we took on to do it who ignored our instructions), nothing to do with Panasonic. All batteries are dangerous, they pack lots of energy in the form of somewhat volatile chemicals into a small space. You have to treat them carefully, especially the Li-po/Li-ion
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So it is completely Sony's fault.
In my opinion, it is completely Panasonic's fault. They delivered a faulty component. From the customer perspective though, Sony must take responsibility, as they integrated and sold the product, and ultimately stand behind the decision to choose Panasonic batteries for the project.
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It could well be that the Sony charging circuits are defective and causing perfectly good batteries to overheat.
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The cells Panasonic supplied were not fault. The way Sony used them was incorrect, resulting in overheating. If you go read the datasheets and app notes from Panasonic on charging various types of battery they all make it very clear that you must carefully monitor temperature.
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The cells Panasonic supplied were not fault. The way Sony used them was incorrect, resulting in overheating.
Citation?
User error? (Score:1)
Re:User error? (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder how many people were using laptops on their laps with a blanket or pillow or something that helps obstruct the vents on the bottom. It's fun to blame Sony but some times it really does come down to user error. Those vents on the bottom aren't there just for show...
I think it's reasonable to expect these laptops to contain thermometers and to automatically shutdown with there's a risk of fire. They're designed to be used in domestic environments with little to no training of the user.
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They need to be bloody hot before they get to that point. Most problems which are capable of destroying the battery are detectable by monitoring current, voltage, and temperature. The rest are the result of physical battery damage which can not be fixed by isolating the supply.
Try it yourself. Short the terminals of a fully charged Li Ion or LiPo battery briefly. It won't burst into flames. Hooked the terminals together for about 20 seconds on the other hand and you have a problem.
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The battery packs do have thermometers. While I haven't seen this specific design, it is industry standard practice to incorporate negative temperature coefficient thermistors (NTC's), which allow the charger to detect battery temperature. The battery charging circuitry would definitely be designed to stop charging the battery when it is hot.
The problem is most likely caused by faulty battery components (separator), or manufacturing impurities (particles in electrolyte) or poor process (damaging separator d
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The lack of irony (Score:3)
http://hothardware.com/News/So... [hothardware.com]
Slashdot Beta is back? (Score:2)
I thought they backed the fuck off of beta? Why is it back?
where they on MH370 and will need to be ban (Score:2)
where they on MH370 and will need to be ban them on other flights as well?