www.engadget.com/2006/09/22/another-thinkpad-battery-explodes
exploding IBM ThinkPad that we spotted last week at LAX may not have been a fluke after all. Telsa Gwynne, wife of famed Linux kernel programmer Alan Cox, describes on her website how her husband's ThinkPad battery suddenly exploded last night (see the photo on the next page), after which "a couple of fires started where the (presumably) boiling battery landed," with one of the fragments taking out a nearby LCD monitor. Alan sustained a few minor burns, but other than the laptop itself there were no serious injuries, thankfully. Telsa does note, however, that the battery was third-party and was bought on eBay, so it may not be an authentic IBM pack at all.
Toshiba recalls, the public demands and deserves complete and rapid disclosure. Update: We traded emails with Alan Cox and have posted some of our questions and answers with him on the next page. Q&A with Alan Cox: Were you in front of the laptop at the time? Thankfully I was about three to four feet to the left of it. Got some minor burns on one hand and down the other arm. Nothing serious enough to need the paramedic to do anything. You said that the battery exploded shooting fragments everywhere -- how far did they go? They took out an LCD display four feet away and hit the wall about the same distance. The LCD was about level with the laptop so it would have gone further. The fragments were hot enough they started small fires and melted the carpet. Also btw - note the way the batteries exploded - forward and slightly downward. Not a nice thought if you had one on your lap at the time.
Sep 22nd 2006 3:38PM I doubt that we, the public, will ever get a full disclosure on this issue. Essentially most, if not all, laptops, cell phones, MP3 players, Blackberries, Palms; hell just about any portable device that you can talk on, listen to, view stuff, play on, schedule things, and combinations thereof use the same lithium-ion batteries that these exploding laptops use. Imagine if Sony had to recall all the batteries it sold in every portable device that it batteries for. And that expensive part is why we won't get full disclosure on this issue.
Sep 22nd 2006 4:15PM In response to the cost of the recall, it's just like the opening scene from Fight Club. If the cost of the lawsuits is less than the cost of doing a recall, there's no recall. On another note, is it really possible to go by a single day WITHOUT hearing another battery explosion, good god!
Sep 22nd 2006 4:21PM I'll bet all of those exploding batteries came from factories out of China. The factories there really have no sense in quality control. We'll probably soon see Lenovo laptops with exploding batteries especially after selling a bunch of them to the US government by Lenovo.
Sep 22nd 2006 4:39PM I think you call this scare mongering - an unoffical component malfunctioning on an a device which is at least 6 years old is hardly newsworthy. If you buy an unoffical battery you should expect as much imho. We know the reason for the recent sony cells malfunctioning and this is in no way connected, there is always a risk of li-ion cells rupturing (1 in 10000000 I think), the problem with the sony cells is that the odds are much higher due to the manufacturing error.
Sep 22nd 2006 5:12PM "If you buy an unoffical battery you should expect as much imho." So the penalty for trying to save a little money should be a fireball inside your house? You shouldn't "expect" an explosion no matter what product you buy. Regular consumer products should not explode under any circumstances and there are strict regulations governing this type of thing. The producers of batteries with known defects that could lead to fire or explosion could be held criminally liable, not just liable for damages in civil court.
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