gizmodo.com — "It occurs when the touchy elements inside a Li-ion battery heat up to the point where the internal reaction accelerates, creating even more heat. In the case of a laptop flameout, the chemicals break out of their metal casing. Because lithium ignites when it makes contact with the moisture in the air, the battery bursts into flame." Read on
Oct 25, 2006 View in Crawl 4
happyscrappyOct 26, 2006
This isn't accurate. I've cut open LIon batteries before and had them leak. The goo inside is nasty, but it doesn't catch fire when it contacts air.There are plenty of compounds of lithium that don't catch fire when exposed to air, and this is one of them.
pgiesselOct 26, 2006
Does anyone else think its stupid to have a different battery for each component? What happens when your at 90% of overall battery capacity and your screen's battery runs out? Yeah, thats going to be helpful.
reknapsOct 26, 2006
If we cant make one battery right, why would we wanted 'thousands' of batteries in a single device.
red_eyeOct 26, 2006
Looking over at my Thinkpad T41 now and its battery temp is at 32c in its docking station fully charged and plugged in. Maybe the linux kernel gods should be the first to take a step to put an end to thermal runaway. A new module that watches the ACPI temp reading for the battery, any sudden spike over a certain temp powers down the laptop or play an alarm or some such. I doubt most laptops have software controllable settings to stop a battery from charging but it would be a good first step until the lazy laptop manufacturers build it into the hardware that if temperatures spike to disconnect the charging source.
trent310Oct 26, 2006
Well, if that plan is actually how they will build laptop batteries in the future, so much for any chance of using /switching spare battery packs.
crixOct 26, 2006
"On one hand, its nice to see Wired get back to its geek roots after a period where it just seemed like it was tech newbie-ish. On the other hand, the feature gets into a depth that even Popsci wouldn't attempt."Is that part about Popsci a joke? Wired's articles are usually more sophisticated.
happyscrappyOct 27, 2006
Hell yes, if you get them hot, they'll ignite. It just isn't spontaneous at room temperature.