Exploding laptop

For those who know me, most of you have probably heard my stupid reply for your typical IT questions. Whatever people ask me what will happen when you do wrong something to your IT software/hardware, I will give the worst case answer as, 顶多你的电脑爆炸啦 (at most when you screw up, your com will explode).

Well here is a Dell laptop going up in flames for 5 minutes, giving a couple of explosion along the way at a Japanese conference. So you have been warned, don't buy those cheap 3rd Chin-na laptop battery or place a laptop on your ...eh... lap. (This comment is 100% my own bullshit, please do NOT sue me)

Original article here

"Remake" of the scene

For all the non-IT nerds out there, there are many more laptop related horror stories out there. I am not talking about slow or expensive laptops, I am referring to the really dangerous, life threatening ones.

For starters, for the male population, I have this story on a guy who got his penis burnt with a laptop, and another on how laptops can killed all your kids before they are even born (hint *infertility*).

As all our new notebooks are now capable of wireless networking, and with the availability of free hotspots almost everywhere, we are exposed more microwave radiation. As with the case of mobile phone radiation risk scare previously, the same thing happened to laptops and their hotspots. The microwave radiation used in the WiFi networks have been blamed and suspected for all sort of things.

Here is one on radiation exposure risk at a school and another on a lawsuit sparked by parental concern over WiFi radiation exposure. Most of the high radiation claims stuff are probably based on bad science. But come on, even if it is true, nobody actually cares now, as the technology is too appealing to dismiss. I rather die from brain tumor then to stop using my mobile phone or laptop. 哈哈 !Those who disagree with me can donate your handphone or/and laptop to me. I am using my sis's hand-me-down Nokia 6610i now and I do not own any laptops.

Are you scared yet ?

*Update* 25 June 2006 - And Dell investigates the issue for now
Most likely to be a overheated laptop battery.

*Update* 02 July 2006 - And Dell says it's a battery fault.
From the inquirer : (Full article here)
"The owner of the laptop was said to be working for an American telecommunications company, but our source declined to reveal more "out of respect for the owner of the laptop and other attendees".

"All his colleagues used Dell laptops too, and the incident must have spelled some anxiety throughout their company for years to come."

* Update * 21 July 2006

According to this article, Dell's exploding laptops isn't really something new.

Quoted without permission from Personal Tech Pipeline :

"Dell grappled with apparently severe overheating problems in scores of notebooks for at least two years before it announced a recall of 22,000 notebooks last year, according to a source close to the company."

• One notebook was charred black for several inches on the bottom corner of the unit, about one-half inch from the system fan;

• Another notebook with a two-inch hole showing where a section of case had melted away, charred black and brown on the bottom of the unit, on the side, about half-way between the fan and the battery;

• More than a dozen notebooks where an inch or two of casing had melted away in the right-hand corner above the keyboard and just below the LCD;

• One system that was melted, mangled and charred black on the bottom corner of a notebook;

• More than one notebook with black charring around the Ethernet port;

• Several units that had melted and warped in the area immediately surrounding the cooling fan;

• Several units that had melted or burned away in the area covering and surrounding the laptop battery unit.

Wow, so this confirms what we all suspected all along...it's not the first time a laptop will go up in smoke nor it will be the last.

*Update 15 August 2006* Dell confirmed the problem. Some batteries are now under a recall program. Here is the website.