[romeosc]

We don't know the facts. Was he using a non original equipted charger, was it in an attic, closet or closed car in summer, etc. Or was it a PB5300!

[rag on a muffin]

true, but that shouldn't matter, the intelligence is in the battery, not the charger as far as i know.

[zagspinal]

Someone (successfully) sued Winnebago because he got in a wreck. He turned on cruise control and thought it meant "automatic pilot," so he got out of the driver's seat and went in the back. The jury awarded him millions of dollars and said it was Winnebago's fault for not explaining that you couldn't set cruise control and get up out of the driver's seat. End result: some lawyer got very rich, and Winnebago now puts a line in their owner's manuals that "Cruise control does not equal automatic pilot."

That is a massive urban legend.

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

[Person Man]

Originally posted by zagspinal:
That is a massive urban legend.

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

I stand corrected.

[RayX]

Originally posted by whop:
ok guys, he did take pictures, for insurance reason of course, and i will try to get in touch with him this week and get him to email me them, and they will be posted asap

Any update on the status of those pictures?

[g3_brandon]

One thing to add about the breathing of lithium. I've done some work with the solar car at my university. We use Lithium-Ion batteries for our car (very similar to what runs the Powerbooks). We have to keep them in a airtight box with ventilation running right out of the car in the event of an explosion. Breathing 8 parts per million of lithium is fatal. So I doubt he breathed in any lithium from an explosion. Maybe just some smoke from melting plastics.

[bsodmike]

Would love to see those pictures, and I have seen pics of the exploding 'dell' which I had posted up @ my site for some time, but removed them later on. I'll see if I can find them, as I think there are alot here that feel 'it can't happen'....at least to them!

[Eriamjh]

Apple probably doesn't make the batteries, but buys the cells and packages them.

Nevertheless, exploding powerbooks are bad. This is probably the exception and not the rule, meaning - your powerbook is not likely to explode; freak accident.

I hope.

[Mac Zealot]

Yes, but the fact it's now happened TWICE, once on a 17" and once on a 15", scares the crap outta me.

I'm guessing they sold a good number of powerbooks, what 400,000 that could possibly be from the same generation, maybe more, and only 2 have had the problem..

Apple's exceedingly lucky they haven't had any bad press yet, but news spreads.. it can still very well happen and get ugly.

[piracy]

Originally posted by Mac Zealot:
Yes, but the fact it's now happened TWICE, once on a 17" and once on a 15", scares the crap outta me.

I'm guessing they sold a good number of powerbooks, what 400,000 that could possibly be from the same generation, maybe more, and only 2 have had the problem..

Apple's exceedingly lucky they haven't had any bad press yet, but news spreads.. it can still very well happen and get ugly.

Alright, listen you idiots. Apple isn't the only manufacturer in the world that has had incidents with lithium ion batteries. EVERY OTHER MANUFACTURER has had issues. That's the nature of dealing with lithium based batteries. The batteries are supposed to have safety systems to prevent this from occurring (which could be for a variety of reasons), but the plain and simple fact is that a lithium ion battery, and/or charging system, can malfunction. Period.

Hint: when something like this happens to 1 or 2 out of a half million machines, it's not a "problem".

But yes, you're right: some dipsh*t will make a video with a photo montage and some cinematic music and post it at explodingpowerbook.com, and then we'll all have to answer questions about whether or not people should buy a PowerBook because they "heard there have been problems with PowerBooks exploding", just like the iPod battery (non-)issue.

Don't you people understand that while, yes, this is Apple's legal responsibility, that it's not automatically a design flaw, or hearken back to the 5300? The 5300 issue wasn't even a problem. It was SONY'S problem, and it never occurred on a shipping laptop: two batteries designed for the 5300 heated up and had incidents in Sony's lab, and thus delayed the 5300.

Since there are so many people out there that love to hate Apple, I'm sure this story will get picked up somewhere and spread like wildfire - when competitive manufacturers have probably had MORE problems per number of units. Of course, when some odd catastrophic one-in-a-million event occurs on a PC notebook, you rarely hear the brand: it's just someone's laptop. But an Apple, by golly, and now we'll be hearing people troll/bitch/complain about Apple laptops "exploding" til the end of time. Some people seriously still bring up the 5300, when the issue never occured under Apple's purview, and never occured on a shipping machine.

Hell, Apple recalled tens of thousands of AC adapters because they could get too *warm*, and no reported incidents with the adapters occurred!

And to those here whose first instinct is sue, sue, sue, this is something completely unrelated to computing, but I feel sorry for you. Sometimes accidents and freak occurrences happen. That's life. You don't always have to get some kind of windfall out of it. I think Apple should give this guy, IF it is indeed true, a new computer and/or a refund, and something for his trouble, and replace anything that may have been damaged by the incident. (Hint: there was no "cloud of lithium" - it was, at most, fumes from the thing burning). If anyone else here thinks anything more, well, then you're the reason for the f*cked up legal system in the US today.

Ref:

Mobile Battery Problems Explode
Experts ponder alternatives to batteries that have caused fire in notebooks, cell phones.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113980,00.asp

"Explosions and fire happen "rarely" but as Lamoreux said, this problem is a "tiger in a cage" just because of the sheer number of batteries out there. Battery problems that result in fire, lots of smoke, and explosions can be caused by a short circuit, excessive heat, overcharging, or abuse."

-----

Nokia Investigates Exploding Cell Phones

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,113416,00.asp

-----

Precautions for working with batteries (NASA)

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache...700-1ch6-1.doc

-----

Non-Correctable Battery Problems

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-32.htm

"If correctly charged, lithium-ion cell should never generate gases and cause venting. But in spite of what is said, the lithium-based cells can build up internal pressure under certain conditions. Some cells include an electrical switch that disconnects the current flow if the cell pressure reaches a critical level. Other cells rupture a membrane to release the gases in a controlled way. lithium-ion-polymer in a pouch cell sometime grows to the shape of a small balloon because these cells do not include venting. Ballooning cell are known to damage the housing of the portable device."

[BobK]

These should be banned from planes.

[Komisar]

[CadetStimpy]

I don't care if it exploded in my lap and blew one of my snarglies off... I'd ask Apple to make it right, pay my medical bills and gimme a few new computers, but I wouldn't sue them for countless millions.

[Komisar]

Well, this has happened to me before but with my power adaptor after 2 days of buzzing. i started to smell something like burnt plastic after some investagation i discovered that the cords out of the power pack were melted on the ends and it was bruning when i touched it, then wham the thing died and a flame poped out, luckily i wasnt injured but i called them. all they cared about was my saftey. until i told them about 100 times that i was fine i just wanted a god damn adaptor.Here is the proccess of events until my new power adaptor was ordered by the man on the apple line.

[rag on a muffin]

Originally posted by BobK:
These should be banned from planes.

you want laptops banned from planes??? i would have to hunt you down. its the only thing that keeps my sanity on that hellhole. all i hear about on the plane is a bunch of whiners that whine about how their pillow isn't soft enough or how they want more alcohol. or i would be stuck watching a movie that nobody would pay to see. besides the battery isn't that powerful of an explosion. it couldn't blow the plane in half, just scorch you and the people next to you maybe.

[Dougmc]

Does anybody know of any electronic device in the U.S. that hasn't been tested and passed by the Underwriter Labratories?

I thought that the whole purpose of UL listings was to assure the end-user that the device meets a certain level of standards.

Just a thought to consider.

[rag on a muffin]

they could test a thousand of them and not find 1 defective one. if there are 400,000 and only 2 are defective.

[Boondoggle]

1 in 200,000 is pretty good odds. You people who are scared are not rational. Do you honestly think your chances of getting injured in a car accident are any better?

How many people do you know who've had a nut blown off by a laptop?

How many people do you know who've DIED in car accidents? I can name 3 w/o even trying very hard.

The most dangerous thing we all do practially every day is get in the car, but no, we've got to worry about our lamps setting fire to our house, our laptop blowing our chubber off and DONT FORGET TO UNPLUG THE TOASTER.

GET LOGICAL

[daviejones]

This same thing happened to my cat when I plugged her into the wall. Must be a trend...