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HP Recalls 135,000 Laptop Batteries
caffeine_monkey writes "AP is reporting that Hewlett Packard is recalling 135,000 notebook batteries because they occasionally overheat and melt. Affected models are HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario, HP Compaq and Compaq Evo. More details are on the HP support site. From their FAQ: Is it safe to buy HP notebooks? Absolutely. HP fully stands behind the products it makes."
Detroit is in the 3rd world? I think you may have a point there...
Oh well, what the hell...
Brown goo that is.
Its time for a rant!
Laptops have always been popular, but over the past year or so, they have become very popular, especially among people who are more consumer technology oriented than computer oriented.
I know that lots of people use and need their laptops. Some people have jobs as field engineers, etc. If I was one of these people, and I knew all of what I was getting into, I would have a laptop. But lots of people think they "NEED" a laptop so that they can check their e-Mail in the coffee shop.
So when people ask me about laptops, I ask them: "So, if you have a laptop, and its powersupply, battery, screen (or other such part) breaks, what are you going to do?". They usually answer that they don't know, and I say I don't know either, but it is perhaps something to think about before you spend 1,000 dollars on a sexy accesory.
Many parts of laptops, especially the battery and power supply, seem to be prone to failure, and unlike a normal computer, these parts are not interchangable (part of the reason for this is that many people don't realize that computers parts are interchangable, but think that their computer has a special "Dell" Hard Drive), so if you have a three year old computer with a dead or broken battery, you are going to spend a lot of time on e-Bay and a lot of money to replace it.
Go, Fellow Geeks, and warn your less weary brethern of the true costs of buying a laptop.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.