What is Digg?66 Comments
- paulmdx, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17Can we remember it was SONY that produced these batteries, Dell just sourced them.
- roosterjm2k2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14You think its cool in a laptop? You should see some electric RC helicopters or planed...
Performance-geared electric Planes and Helis use Li-Poly batteries (same as Li-Ion, just a softer "shell"). In a hard crash, the batteries can be damaged, most good pilots check them after crashes but alot of new guys dont pay attention, they charge them (which could set them on fire, houses have burnt down from this kind of thing) or even better, they charge fine and fly. Then, mid flight, the unmistakeable white flame of a detonating li-poly battery and nothing but a trail of smoke leading to the crash site... =) - valenciastudent, on 10/12/2007, -5/+16I was ready to hear all about the rootkits Sony was hiding in the cells. What a letdown.
- subbzzz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12I've never heard of SONY Laptops exploding.. weird.. maybe SONY has something to do with it ;-)
- RandomGuySteve, on 10/12/2007, -11/+21The collective will of a thousand apple fan-boys?
- BritishGolgo13, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13@Mythos: I think the plot is Steven Segal must keep the laptop cpu at over 60% processing time and all through the movie he tries to figure out how, and then his daughter uses it for 5 mins and loads it up with spyware/adware to keep it going over 60% at any given moment.
- ocram, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11As opposed to who? Apple?
https://depot.info.apple.com/batteryexchange/
https://support.apple.com/macbookpro15/batteryexchange/ - titlesaysitall, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Any company including Apple can have bad batteries.
- ModernTenshi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I work for my university's computer helpdesk, and we upgraded all of our campus machines to Dells last summer. All of the laptops are D510's that have the batteries in question in them. We have to replace 250 of them, and Dell wants us to put all the SN's in some website, rather than us just sending them a list of all the batteries and requesting new ones.
We're not too happy with them right now. - nonsequitor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Actually Sony warned Dell about a possible quality problem 2 years ago. Thing is, Dell didn't care and probably didn't want to pay for the quality control. Though at the time neither company knew that this could end up exploding and destroying the laptop and its immediate environment.
Sony basically told them, "Hey, there's something funny about these batteries, but they seem to work ok. Do you want to spend more money and not get funny batteries? We don't know if it could cause problems later." While Sony on the other hand probably had stricter quality controls in place.
If A plus B is less than X where X is the cost of a recall, we don't do one. - mildgreenfairy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Any photos/videos?
- OBDriftwood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Good article. Prior to reading it I thought that the batteries had been purchased from Acme by Wile E. Coyote.
- trove, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Lack of engineering? This from InformationWeek, Aug. 21, 2006
Nancy Nord, acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said on PBS's The News Hour last week that the issue "was not a design problem ... but deals with quality control in the manufacture of the battery. A contaminant got into the cell, and when the battery is vigorously jostled or compressed, that contaminant can cause a short." - josegutz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"What is causing Dell laptop batteries to explode"
Apparently, it's the constant pounding and yelling at the laptop while waiting for the Geek Squad to show up..... - Raydr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5@mildgreenfairy:
Yes, Youtube.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=lipo&search=Search
Enjoy! - revvolutions, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4mentos and diet coke
- stuffhappens, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@subbzzz:
"I've never heard of SONY Laptops exploding"
Regrettably, in my experience working for a systems house/repair centre and also because my wife has one, Sony Vaios don't explode - they either just fail, or bits break and fall off them.
Do not sneeze near a Sony Vaio! - fodder650, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5This isn't the first time Dell has had problem's with their batteries exploding. Back in 2000 we had the same issue. I worked for a school where we had about 400 of them. Most with kids who traveled a lot.
You would have thought Dell would have learned their lesson. But they have shown they don't care about their clients over and over again. So whats one more issue. - titlesaysitall, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5The RIAA? It's a perfect plan really, they tell Dell which laptops need to explode because they have the names of some pirates.
- maverick808, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Actually, if you have a Mac and access to Leopard then if you look in the power section in System Profiler you will see that the MacBook and MacBook Pro batteries are made by none other than Sony. So looks like Dell and Apple get their batteries from the same place.
- KriLL3.2™, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dell should be happy none of these batteries have been in the lap of someone when going boom... That would cost em...
- inactive, on 01/17/2009, -0/+1that is good article, and if you want to buy cheap laptop battery, try below:
http://www.babatek.com/original-hp-compaq-laptop-b ...
http://www.babatek.com/original-hp-laptop-battery- ...
http://www.babatek.com
good choose for you - mpeng168, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2the battery shorting has nothing to do with the Dell laptops except that Dell had the misfortune of having that lot from whoever made that batch. OR it could indicate that their charging system is incompatible with the actual cells from that manufacturer. This could happen to anyone's laptop, regardless of brand.
This one is actually worth a digg - Scott2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"yeah, recalling 4 million batteries and taking a loss clearly shows they don't care for their customers."
Federal law requires that they do that. Its not an option. Whats sad is that it took them this long to announce the recall.
Besides, Sony will ultimately pay for this - Dell will incur some costs, sure, but Sony will get nailed worst. - Callero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What is causing Li-ion cells (and specifically Sony manufactured cells) to explode would be a better title
- Drealoth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Don't hate me guys, I'm just the messenger.
Only when you fully subscribe to the doctrine of Truthiness will you too be able to see the light. Until that time, sure go ahead and blame it on "engineering problems" and "manufacturing defects." Deep down in your hearts, you all know the Truth, and you can only lie to yourselves for so long. - hipster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I like how it has turned from "catching on fire" to "Exploding"
- LiterateWolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Investment in new products reduces profits and supports communism.
- titlesaysitall, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Didn't Dell used to (or still does) put all their computer through a stress test?
- thermus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's important to note that these battery packs and individual cells have numerous safety features that, in general, work well, but have clearly not prevented these accidents. So before anyone points fingers at a specific manufacturer, a detailed review of where the failures are occuring is necessary.
Is it the cells themselves or are the protection circuits failing to detect overheating cells or are the charging circuits failing?
Dell and any other manufacturers that want to stay out of court should have taken the very first incident extremely seriously. Not to be overly dramatic, but a failing Li-ion device could KILL someone, not to mention the potential for great loss of property in the event of a fire. - rabbott, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1so dangerous to have a laptop in your lap. i never leave my house without turning off my Dell.
- markgl, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1uh they're bad? thats my first guess.
- ntulip, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i recommend a "Dell" category or a new thread "I hate Dell" for all comments not related to a battery!
- SlyCooper360, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I submitted the same story from howstuffworks.com 2 days earlier
http://digg.com/hardware/What_is_causing_Dell_laptop_batteries_to_explode - jabelar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Stress testing is usually done on engineering samples. Any changes in quality of components during manufacturer are not caught in such tests, however if the manufacturing tests know there is potential for a particular type of failure then they will add some specific spot testing. Checking every unit usually takes too much time.
- dmonkey111, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0how long before all airlines ban dell laptops?
- redbdd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Dell is just slacking in there performance to me because at one point they had good pc and note books then after a while the began screw up . i work on PCs alot and dells are what mainly comes through my doors and there mechanical programing and software programming is screwed up because the big problem i had with them where corrupted operating systems and on top of that alot of blown power supplies
- LiterateWolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Dell bought and used the batteries. Dell must take personal responsibility for it. Of course, libertarians will advocate that Dell should receive welfare for thier mistakes instead of fixing the problem.
- jabelar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This was discussed on a Mythbuster's episode about "exploding pants". They confirmed that certain herbicides could explain very fast combustion, but "explosion" was a bit of an overstatement. However, they ended up agreeing that when a person is subjected to something unexpectedly catching on fire people will often refer to it as "exploding".
- Imthebest171, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Wow. This must be crazy... Now I'm paranoid about my family's homes, if I remember right two of my cousins bought the XPS laptops last month. I should warn them about this. Spreading the word may help. That would really suck if the batteries actually burned down a whole house, let alone killing my friends or family members!
- aOenEz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I love it how you're assuming I'm an Apple fanboy because of what I said. Great! Oh, by the way, I'm typing this on a custom builty PC! And another thing, I've never owned an Apple in my life. Don't assume. Lastly what really kills your argument is the fact that I was being sarcastic. Albeit, not too obvious, but sarcastic nonetheless.
- Jorenm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Do you even know what a libertarian is? Look it up.
- metzbrat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm beginning to see posted signs in cafes prohibiting dell laptops on their premises due to safety concerns and insurance regulations.
- Raydr, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2@self:
Also try different variations, such as "lipo battery" and "lipo fire". You'll see some amazing explosions out of a tiny package.
Are you listening, Al-Qaeda ? - jimbonics, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1yeah, recalling 4 million batteries and taking a loss clearly shows they don't care for their customers.
- ganzhimself, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Take the number of batteries in the field, A.
Multiply it by the probable rate of failure, B.
Multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement, C.
A x B x C = X.
If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one. - nikkesen, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2@ Drealoth
It's all part of their big experiament to find a way to use an American symbol to inflict fear into the hearts of Americans. It would've been too obvious to go after McDonalds. -
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