Woman Injured When Laptop Computer Explodes

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Before you say anything, it wasn't an Apple either.

“It blew up. It flipped my computer back and the battery pack and all came out this way,” Loretta Luff recalled, “The next thing I knew, my shirt was on fire, I grabbed that and took that off and I think that’s when I singed my hair.”
Click to expand...
 
Most of the time use abuse is to blame. They are too rough with the device/battery pack and it swells and explodes, or they use unapproved chargers or aftermarket crap chinese batteries and so forth. And sometimes when things do go wrong (they notice smoke or something), they'll go full retard and instead of using an appropriate fire extinguisher they'll dump a bucket of water on it (usually while its plugged in). There's also huge incentive for the "victim" to exagerate in the hopes of being compensated accordingly.

Here's a spoonfull of salt.
 
Article says she replaced the battery 3 years ago. Poor lady singed her old lady fro. She reminds me of my Mema. :(
 
I actually believe the lady. The article does mention that she replaced the battery 3 years ago and maybe that was with a cheap knockoff battery. It's a shame that the OEMs overcharge so much which leads to these situations.
 
Steve said:
Before you say anything, it wasn't an Apple either.
Click to expand...
:D

Considering Apple solders their batteries in, this might have turned out even worse for the victim. But considering she said she replaced the battery a few years earlier, and that she can't recall if it was a third-party replacement (at her age, most likely was), it probably would not have exploded at all had it been an Apple.

...God I hate that I said something good about Apple. I need to cleanse my tongue now.
 
Most likely a 3rd party battery, small chance she was using a 3rd party or incorrect power adapter.

If it was the battery, I'm sure it's less than 3 years old, as most 3rd party batteries don't last that long.
 
The batteries that were inside the casing looked pretty janky... In 25+ years of tech work though, I've never bothered to actually try and disassemble a laptop battery though, so I'm not sure if they actually look like that.
 
Notice the cooling pad. Willing to bet the computers been running way to hot for a while now and rather than fixing the issue they bandaided it with a cooling pad. Willing to bet a knock of battery and probably ac are to blame.
 
Ruoh said:
The batteries that were inside the casing looked pretty janky... In 25+ years of tech work though, I've never bothered to actually try and disassemble a laptop battery though, so I'm not sure if they actually look like that.
Click to expand...

Hard to tell from the video, but it just looked like batteries to me, just burnt.


Here's some from Lenovo and HP:
batts.jpg
 
Ducman69 said:
Most of the time use abuse is to blame. They are too rough with the device/battery pack and it swells and explodes, or they use unapproved chargers or aftermarket crap chinese batteries and so forth. And sometimes when things do go wrong (they notice smoke or something), they'll go full retard and instead of using an appropriate fire extinguisher they'll dump a bucket of water on it (usually while its plugged in). There's also huge incentive for the "victim" to exagerate in the hopes of being compensated accordingly.

Here's a spoonfull of salt.
Click to expand...

This, this this.

We had someone bring their laptop in the other day, the topcase was cracked and obviously someone had taken the lcd bezel off because the screws were exposed. He brought it in because smoke had come out of it. I took it apart and found the inverter had started on fire and melted the connector. I told him I wouldn't do any more work on it and he should not use it anymore. I imagine it will get used for at least another year, or until it burns itself, and everything else around it, to the ground.

We also had someone else bring a laptop with a cheap aftermarket a/c adapter that was buzzing loudly. I told them to never use that a/c adapter again but they refused to order a new one from us. *shrug* I can't force them out of stupidity.

This kind of thing is even more common with cars. People don't inflate the tires correctly, flip their suv's, and companies like Firestone lose billions.
 
AaronGant said:
Hard to tell from the video, but it just looked like batteries to me, just burnt.


Here's some from Lenovo and HP:
batts.jpg
Click to expand...

Huh. Interesting. Much lower tech than I imagined, I guess I've seen too many Apple/tablet teardowns where the "batteries" were more like gel packs in appearance.
 
Even if it a OEM or 3rdparty Battery the exploding is most like lee due to overcharging of the battery which must like lee because onboard battery protection circuit module had failed.
 
Amazing that some people would rather save a few dollars on buying the cheapest nastiest battery \ power supply from Ebay instead of sourcing something reliable. For the price difference of a four pack of beer they will pick the cheap and nasty option instead of a branded product.

Some of the laptops I get to see in my job are stunning!! Not just the cheap knock-off batteries and PSUs. But how the laptops are treated in the home.

These things are *abused* to death. Liquids poured into them. Laptops used on laps or fluffy sofas blocking the air vents. Things dropped on the laptop, or the laptop dropped onto the floor. Parts smashed.

I was handed a laptop the other week which had been dropped so often the battery plastic itself was smashed. Never seen someone manage to expose the inside of a battery before!! Yet they didn't seem concerned, just whack some duck tape on it to cover the hole!!

I often open these laptops up to clean them. Removing fluff, dog hair, nicotine, dirt and general grott. It is amazing how often the gap between the fan and the copper rad is just a think lump of gunky fluff with the density of a lump of felt. Funny how often when I clean a laptop like that and hand it back to the client they act surprised - "Oh, it sounds a lot quieter now".
 
Haha - just watched the video. Clearly not a Dell Battery. That BS line about "not sure if the replacement was from Dell" clearly meant that she didn't want to pay the full price of a Dell battery and went cheap and nasty instead.

You get what you pay for.
 
Im disturbed that the police chief of 25yrs stated he has never seen a fire like that. It's a lithium fire, metal/chemical and electrical. If I were him I wouldn't state that just to create the feeling that this is unnatural and never heard of before. :/
 
I've seen the old Apple exploding batteries first hand. The system wasn't even plugged into a charger, and hadn't been for a while, so this was a residual charge, or pure chemical reaction. The battery just started expanding until it popped the bottom cover off. It never caught fire, but it just kept expanding. It was in a lab I worked in, so we just put it on a counter upside down away from anything important, and watched the progress over a few days. When the outer coating actually started tearing apart we threw it out, but it was definitely interesting to see. If it was user or charge related, it would have been weeks before it actually started expanding like this as we issued the previous owner new hardware. This one had just been sitting around for a while.
 
Eh... it happens. The benefits of light weight batteries that have good recharge rates and long lasting time outweighs the rare dangerous occurrence like this that happens... well unless you're on a plane when it happens and it takes the plane down... that would just suck, looking at you Dreamliner!
 
1. Yay philly.
2. I am surprised that mid 2000's Dell Inspiron is still running.
3. Maybe this is Microsoft's new way of getting people to upgrade from XP, if the computer explodes you have to buy a new one.
 
EspoNation said:
1. Yay philly.
2. I am surprised that mid 2000's Dell Inspiron is still running.
3. Maybe this is Microsoft's new way of getting people to upgrade from XP, if the computer explodes you have to buy a new one.
Click to expand...

Or maybe it will be Apple's way of getting people to switch? haha

I had an inspiron that ran great for 4years, after that though, meh....
 
Armenius said:
:D

Considering Apple solders their batteries in, this might have turned out even worse for the victim. But considering she said she replaced the battery a few years earlier, and that she can't recall if it was a third-party replacement (at her age, most likely was), it probably would not have exploded at all had it been an Apple.

...God I hate that I said something good about Apple. I need to cleanse my tongue now.
Click to expand...


If it had been an Apple product with soldered batteries, then likely she would have had to replace the entire laptop years ago--if it didn't explode first, that is...;)
 
EspoNation said:
1. Yay philly.
2. I am surprised that mid 2000's Dell Inspiron is still running.
3. Maybe this is Microsoft's new way of getting people to upgrade from XP, if the computer explodes you have to buy a new one.
Click to expand...

I bought a Dell Inspiron 6000, like that years ago (2005ish), Still have it, and it's still chugging along (connected to my vinyl cutter). The cathode in the LCD is so old and worn out that only half the screen is lit up enough to read. I thought about replacing the LCD, but figured it's not worth it. If the damn laptop ever finally dies I'll just buy a new machine.

Mine still has the original Dell battery in it. Won't hold a charge for more then 10 mins now, so I just keep it plugged up all the time. After seeing this, maybe I should just take the battery out of it....
 
DraginDime said:
I bought a Dell Inspiron 6000, like that years ago (2005ish), Still have it, and it's still chugging along (connected to my vinyl cutter). The cathode in the LCD is so old and worn out that only half the screen is lit up enough to read. I thought about replacing the LCD, but figured it's not worth it. If the damn laptop ever finally dies I'll just buy a new machine.

Mine still has the original Dell battery in it. Won't hold a charge for more then 10 mins now, so I just keep it plugged up all the time. After seeing this, maybe I should just take the battery out of it....
Click to expand...
Old laptops never have to die. When the screen goes - just "decapitate it". Unscrew the old screen and attach a small monitor using VGA instead. In your case I'd stick the monitor up on a wall bracket.

And yeah - removing the battery may be a good safety plan. Especially as you never move the laptop if it is a dedicated control machine. But yours will still be the original Dell battery, which will be a hell of a lot safer than some Chinese knock off like the person in the story was using.

Dell computers don't die... they just go on and on. I just came back from helping a friend move house and had to force her to throw out her old Dell Pentium II. Even though there was complaints of "it still works....".
 
BlueMeanie said:
But yours will still be the original Dell battery, which will be a hell of a lot safer than some Chinese knock off like the person in the story was using.
Click to expand...

Original batteries usually have internal fuses or breakers that will open when there is too much current or heat. That usually protects them from over charging or from failed/shorted cells.

They also use higher quality cells, so you are much less likely to have a cell develope an internal short that results in thermal runaway/fire.
 
nutzo said:
Original batteries usually have internal fuses or breakers that will open when there is too much current or heat. That usually protects them from over charging or from failed/shorted cells.

They also use higher quality cells, so you are much less likely to have a cell develope an internal short that results in thermal runaway/fire.
Click to expand...

I am guessing she was using a knock-off battery as well.. but I have seen a number of Dell laptops with original Dell batteries, have the batteries get burning hot when they die.

One second they are working fine, holding a charge, etc. and the next minute they get hot enough to burn you.

The most recent was with a Precision M6500. We had to buy the user a new laptop because batteries are not available from Dell anymore.

Luckily, I have never had one start a fire or explode.
 
People often blame Chinese knockoff but guess what, those "Dell" batteries are probably made in China too, and the cells inside are probably the exact same cells. This is what you call a freak accident, it can happen with pretty much anything. Heck didn't Dell have huge issues at one point with their batteries? I wonder if this is one of those models.
 
Gotta love lithium batteries, I've seen a 30lb aircraft lithium go up like that on a charging unit and take out half a room. Looked like someone threw a grenade through the door.
 
Red Squirrel said:
People often blame Chinese knockoff but guess what, those "Dell" batteries are probably made in China too, and the cells inside are probably the exact same cells. This is what you call a freak accident, it can happen with pretty much anything. Heck didn't Dell have huge issues at one point with their batteries? I wonder if this is one of those models.
Click to expand...

Dell at least probably has some minimum OEM standards in place, however a third party ebay battery is most likely bottom of the barrel "Russian roulette" quality.
 
I'm glad "computer" was added to the title. It may have been confused with a laptop dance otherwise.
 
DraginDime said:
I bought a Dell Inspiron 6000, like that years ago (2005ish), Still have it, and it's still chugging along (connected to my vinyl cutter). The cathode in the LCD is so old and worn out that only half the screen is lit up enough to read. I thought about replacing the LCD, but figured it's not worth it. If the damn laptop ever finally dies I'll just buy a new machine.

Mine still has the original Dell battery in it. Won't hold a charge for more then 10 mins now, so I just keep it plugged up all the time. After seeing this, maybe I should just take the battery out of it....
Click to expand...

Thinking about my judgement passed on these devices, I have just remembered that all of the ones I worked on were owned by girls in college... That also might have had something to do with them not lasting.
 
Ducman69 said:
Most of the time use abuse is to blame. They are too rough with the device/battery pack and it swells and explodes, or they use unapproved chargers or aftermarket crap chinese batteries and so forth. And sometimes when things do go wrong (they notice smoke or something), they'll go full retard and instead of using an appropriate fire extinguisher they'll dump a bucket of water on it (usually while its plugged in). There's also huge incentive for the "victim" to exagerate in the hopes of being compensated accordingly.

Here's a spoonfull of salt.
Click to expand...

Another typical Ducman69 post that assigns blame and assumes stupidity. Then again, with 69 in a username, one wouldn't have high expectations.
 
This is what happens when you use junk batteries. The OEM batteries are expensive for a reason; Lithium-ion batteries are not your simple AA batteries but actually contain complex circuitry designed to regulate the battery so that things like this don't happen.
 
BlueMeanie said:
Amazing that some people would rather save a few dollars on buying the cheapest nastiest battery \ power supply from Ebay instead of sourcing something reliable. For the price difference of a four pack of beer they will pick the cheap and nasty option instead of a branded product.

Some of the laptops I get to see in my job are stunning!! Not just the cheap knock-off batteries and PSUs. But how the laptops are treated in the home.

These things are *abused* to death. Liquids poured into them. Laptops used on laps or fluffy sofas blocking the air vents. Things dropped on the laptop, or the laptop dropped onto the floor. Parts smashed.

I was handed a laptop the other week which had been dropped so often the battery plastic itself was smashed. Never seen someone manage to expose the inside of a battery before!! Yet they didn't seem concerned, just whack some duck tape on it to cover the hole!!

I often open these laptops up to clean them. Removing fluff, dog hair, nicotine, dirt and general grott. It is amazing how often the gap between the fan and the copper rad is just a think lump of gunky fluff with the density of a lump of felt. Funny how often when I clean a laptop like that and hand it back to the client they act surprised - "Oh, it sounds a lot quieter now".
Click to expand...

Or maybe people just don't believe the BS about reliable anymore. I have bought many batteries cheap and expensive, OEM and ebay and none have exploded, But actually large numbers of batteries had to be recalled from the biggest OEMs for this. If the OEMs want people to stop buying ebay batteries they can stop gouging the hell out of people. No I am not paying nearly 4x the price for a battery just because HP ships it. Oh but hey don't worry kids we wont have this problem long because if apple et al get their way you wont be able to replace the battery anyway.
 
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