Batteries that Explode
Yipes! your laptop is a ticking time bomb waiting to burst in flames – cooking processors and data into a fine
stew of smelly electronic parts. Get out the marshmallows!
In the last couple weeks Dell and Apple have ordered enormous recalls of laptop batteries and the news media again fails to
zero in on the real culprit- Sony. I wonder if Sony is recalling their laptop batteries too….this is somewhere around 6 MILLION
batteries recalled- and I wonder if there will be damages for Sony. I’m trying to get a handle on what the issue really is:
faulty wiring outside the batteries (drawing power the wrong way?) or some internal engineering mistake on Sony’s part.
It remains to be seen if other manufacturers will do similar recalls (I think many OEM Sony batteries are Sony products).
Dell seems to have taken much prodding to do this- reports started popping up in June about the “burst into Flame” effect and it wasn’t
until the Dell bar-b-que videos on Youtube that provoked a large scale recall. Apple- who sometimes needs a class action
lawsuit to get a recall program under way – does the right thing by offering a replacement program right away. People have been
complaining about the heat these laptops produce for years- so I wonder if there’s a tolerance issue going on- we all know how hot
some of these laptops get.
Quantas Airlines is even telling folks to remove their batteries and use power while in flight.
Tee- fricking- hee.
yet can we trust these folks to thoroughly test products before they bring them to market? Maybe time to produce new ways to power laptops (and everything else in the world). A crank shaft on a laptop may not be just for the $100.00 Third World model.
Consulting
August 28th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
The answer to your question about what caused the failure of a handful of Sony batteries can be found at http://www.direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/08/22/2149.aspx.
As a Dell employee familiar with the chain of events, it is not true that we we’re “provoked” to issue our voluntary recall. It was the result of a lot of tough investigative work by diligent Dell engineers and 3rd-party experts like the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In the end, Dell was commended by industry analysts and others, including the National Association of State Fire Inspectors, for acting quickly and with an abundance of concern for the safety of the people of use our products. We also commend Apple for doing the right thing.
Thanks for the opportunity to offer additional information and to set the record straight.
September 11th, 2006 at 6:15 am
I applaud Dell (and Apple) for pulling these batteries. I am very aware-perhaps moreso than the average techie- of recalls and though the
percentage of batteries that explode is very small- the computer industry
is doing far better along these lines of safety than the Auto industry.
I find it interesting that in my hardly ever read blog a Dell representative comments here. The astonishing speed that Dell attends to repairing failed parts has always amazed me. This battery exchange, of course, is the correct course of action, not a quality issue that is neccessarily owned by Dell. Unfortunately, the problem reflects on Dell and Apple and not as much as on Sony.