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Dell's Exploding Laptop Autopsy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the determining-the-cause-of-aaaughh dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Dell has gone to the Consumer Product Safety Commission looking for help determining the cause of death for its exploding laptop. Dell has been blaming the lithium ion battery; the commission seems to have had a few problems with those batteries in the past."

3 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Li-Po use in RC by Spiked_Three · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I play with a lot of R/C stuff - planes, helicopters etc. And the warnings about Li-Po batteries are pretty explicit. If you where to crash a plane with a Li-PO you need to set the battery in a fire proof container and keep an eye on it for an hour or so. Also never charge Li-Po un-attended - people have burned down houses because of it.

    I suspect the laptop had a hard drop sometime in the not to distant past, got picked up, put on charge and kaboom.

    The question is what is the right thing to do? Ban the batteries or make better efforts in consumer education? In the R/C hobby we are smart enough (well the majority anyhow) to treat Li-Pos with respect - but consumer laptops, that's somewhat scary.

    http://www.laureanno.com/RC/fire-pics.htm

    --
    slashdot troll = you make a compelling argument I do not like the implications of.
  2. It's the charger stupid.... by khb · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That batteries can explode is no secret. Managing the charging correctly is critical ... and a battery which is on the road to exploding has lots of "markers" (fast heat rise, wrong charging profile, etc.).

    It seems to me that low margins are the root cause ... for the battery vendor to have QA practices that allow marginal batteries, and for Dell (since they are the ones being fingered, not because I know anything about their practices) to skip additional safety logic beyond whatever minimal standards the battery vendor has specified.

  3. Plugged in? by shabushabu · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I searched TFA but couldnt find the answer to what I believe is a critical question. Was the laptop plugged into an AC outlet when it exploded? If so, even a short could cause an explosion.

    On the other hand, if the battery exploded entirely by itself, a major recall is due...