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The Further Adventures of the Incredible Exploding Laptop

The Further Adventures of the Incredible Exploding Laptop

by , 12:20 PM EDT, June 21st, 2006

Tech site The Inquirer reported on Wednesday that one of its readers attended a conference in Japan where a Dell laptop literally burst into flames "and produced several explosions for more than five minutes." No information was available on the model of the laptop.

"It is only a matter of time until such an incident breaks out on a plane," reader "Guilhem" said. He provided two photos to The Inquirer, one of which we've included below.

Luckily, no one was injured.

Dell's next laptop, the HindenBook

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Close Name:mahuti - TMO Staff Posts: 377 Joined: 09 Jan 2003
Wed Jun 21, 2006 12:55 pm Subject: In the immortal words of...

In the immortal words of Nelson Muntz;

"HAWh Hawh"

Oh well, I'm sure it will happen to a Mac someday... nobody's perfect. The bursting into flames + explosions IS a bit much though.

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Close Name:Ibn Rushd Posts: 51 Joined: 16 May 2006
Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:35 pm Subject: More info?

I went to the Inquirer to read the article. I was wondering if the laptop was plugged into A/C and if the fire was a result overcharging the battery. These can run hot and if the fan was blocked then it could have caused the fire.

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Close Name:Small White Car Posts: 1960 Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:42 pm Subject:

Quote
mahuti wrote:

Oh well, I'm sure it will happen to a Mac someday... nobody's perfect. The bursting into flames + explosions IS a bit much though.

It already has. There was a story awhile back on it. These things can happen if you're not carefull so I'm not gonna blame Dell over this.

I'm somewhat glad about stories like this just because people can't say that only Apple laptops do this, but that's about the extent of my joy. I really don't want to see ANY laptops catching on fire, but if it's gonna happen I'm glad to see it happening to all computer companies and not just one.

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Close Name:brett_x Posts: 322 Joined: 24 Jan 2006
Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:34 pm Subject: I'll take this excuse to say:

I think Michael Dell should close down the company and give all of the money back to their shareholders.

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Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2088 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:48 pm Subject: Don't ...

The picture shows one of the problems--running a laptop on a fabric-covered surface. That is even worse than, say, a wooden desk, as the fabric is a terrible heat conductor. The heat cannot flow away and the laptop gots hotter and hotter,until something starts burning. If the guy had used something like either of the Roadtools CoolPads, air could circulate and cool the laptop. Of course, if the laptop or battery has a non-heat-related failure, anything could happen.

Last edited by gslusher on Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:50 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Close Name:akcarver Posts: 144 Joined: 23 Oct 2001
Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:48 pm Subject:

Quote
brett_x wrote:
I think Michael Dell should close down the company and give all of the money back to their shareholders.

Now THAT'S comedy!

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Close Name:Snaggy Posts: 3 Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:43 pm Subject:

Reminds me of our old Joy of Tech comic...

The Dell Laptop Dancers... dang hot.

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Close Name:Mikuro Posts: 457 Joined: 15 Jun 2002
Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:46 am Subject: Fun for the whole family!

This did happen to Apple, I think with the PowerBook 5200. But I'm not sure if they ever exploded outside of Apple's labs.

This makes all the complaints about the MacBook Pro's temperature seem a bit silly.

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Close Name:Rainy Day Posts: 607 Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:26 pm Subject: The HindenBook

â€œDell's next laptop, the HindenBookâ€

Zing! Ouch. Now thatâ€™s bad!

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Close Name:Luvz2Fly Posts: 1 Joined: 28 Jun 2006
Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:29 pm Subject: Security...

Was Microsoft's new Firewall turned OFF?

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