Burn to a crisp baby!
MacBook Inferno! An Apple MacBook battery catches fire – NewLaunches.com: OK, one burned laptop might not be enough to issue a recall, but watch out anyway.
Matty from Melbourne Australia surfed the net using Safari for 30 minutes yesterday night on his Macbook, after which he close the lid put it on sleep mode and left it on the bookshelf for charging. However at 3 a.m. all hell broke loose as his girlfriend heard the Macbook hissing like a steam valve, then smoke started pouring out of it and a couple of seconds later, a very large flash fire started. On hearing her loud screams and the dog barking Matty raced to the scene.
As I was running I saw a fire. At first I thought that the lamp had fallen and set fire to the curtain. As I got closer I realised it was my mac book …. burning! I picked it up and blew on it and swung it around to put the flames out. The book shelf it was sitting on was burnt and there were a couple of magazines that were on fire too. I quickly put those out and calmed down.
The battery is swollen and burnt so it’s definitely the battery that exploded and caught fire. The macbook is melted on the bottom and severely charred (along with my bookshelves, books, magazines and the wall). The space bar is melted as is the track pad. The screen has been damaged a little too.
You can see more pictures of the event at their website.
There is also the situation that 3M is suing Sony, Lenovo and other tech companies for patent infringement in relation to notebook batteries.
I’m more shocked about how disgusting this guy’s couch is. Yuck!
Oops, just noticed the last line at bottom… it’s the dog’s couch.
heard the Macbook hissing like a steam valve
That’s what you get for running an old Steam Powered MacBook!
[snicker]
J/P=?
Wasn’t there a large amount of macbooks that shipped with bad sony batteries? Isn’t it likely that he had one of those, and never new about the recall?
What if this happened on a commercial flight or a cargo flight carrying a whole pallet of these over the middle of the Pacific Ocean? These are just as dangerous as the oxygen canisters that brought down ValuJet Flt 592. It’s only a matter of time before a lithium battery powered device brings down an aircraft. They don’t have a built in level of safety manufactured in low quality Chinese factories.
The Apple recall of Sony batteries was months ago. If he registered his purchase (for warranty) he would have rec’d a notice. My PowerBook was registered and I had a replacement battery in a few weeks.
I wouldn’t worry about, hardly anyone uses Mac’s so the risk of being on the same flight as someone with a Mac is slightly lower than winning the lottery… Now if it was PCs I’d be worried (/Sarcasm)
It’s only a matter of time before a lithium battery powered device brings down an aircraft.
Apparently lithium batteries are simply more dangerous than anybody realized.
I think what we’re actually seeing is the beginning of the end of lithium batteries in portable devices, which sucks.
thank god i shut mine done completely!
Lithium batteries were banned from commercial air travel for a short time because one of the original computers cantaining them, a Mac, did this same thing. The producers of the batteries, as well as PC makers, convinced the FAA that they would build safe and reliable Li-Ion systems, and to a large degree they have.
In this case, it looks like the machine was being charged, so the same failure mode is unlikely while flying. (even the nicer airplane power adapters don’t provide enough juice to charge)
#4
“Wasn’t there a large amount of macbooks that shipped with bad sony batteries? Isn’t it likely that he had one of those, and never new about the recall? ”
He was too busy shouting at everyone how his macbook can outperform other people’s laptops to notice.
#4 – That was the MacBook Pro, not the MacBook. Different battery. We’ll probably see a recall eventually, too. But correct me if I’m wrong… Doesn’t Australia use 220 and not 110?
#11 – that was PC Mag doing the shouting, actually. 🙂
#12, the voltage reaching the laptop is independent of the one coming from the plug, the power brick will convert the electricity to to 12 v or some low number. The same power brick used in Australia would work in the U.S., you just need the appropriate adapter, although if you buy it from Apple, it will cost you dearly, as all things that Apple sells.
#3, JP, that was bad. Funny as hell, but still bad. Actually, I kinda liked it.
Neither of my PowerBook G4 batteries was on the recall list. Bought a MacBook Pro last week and have no qualms about the battery burning up whatsoever.
Are we supposed to forget that most laptop batteries for whatever brand and model were not on the recall lists? Such overreaction suggests that.
I am skeptical of people who make too much of a mishap. Here’s hoping the battery in this incident doesn’t turn out to have been tampered with. I’m also serious about whether it is a genuine Apple battery or something the fellow scored off eBay very, very cheaply.
I live in Australia, i’m involved in the official discussion thread about this over at MacTalk Australia, and apparently the troubled MacBook Pro has been replaced with a newer one. Chances are this was actually a Revision A as it was sold during Apple’s Battery Recall.
A revision A battery that slipped through, I guess.
#19 Uh, if you were involved in the ‘official’ discussion thread, you would know that it was troubled MacBook. But yes, Apple AU have offered to replace it with a MacBook Pro…
So, no, it can’t have been a Rev.A battery that slipped through, as there hasn’t been any recall on MacBook batteries…
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