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Dell Laptop Explodes at Yahoo

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

September 20, 2006, 4:58 PM

An employee who apparently did not heed the warning of Dell's laptop battery recall brought about a 45 minute recess for a couple hundred employees at Yahoo's Mission College campus after a notebook burst into flames. No injuries were reported in the incident, the aftermath of which was captured on camera.

The laptop fire at Yahoo is the latest in a series of high-profile cases that prompted both Dell and Apple to recall 5.9 million batteries, which were built by Sony and had a manufacturing problem that could lead them to overcharge and explode. Several airlines are now requiring customers to remove the batteries from their notebooks before flying.

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By NikoPhoto

edited Jun 26, 2007 - 4:50 PM

Not only Dell and not only in Yahoo...
In Italy a Notebook Battery cause a real explosion and damage a room...

http://notebookitalia.it...e-cosa-fare/view-6.html

Bye Bye

Score: 0

By tankist

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 6:06 PM

makes me very happy i got that cheap-ass NEC instead of toshiba or dell... not the best hardware but at least it doesn't explode. recall is a huge hassle. how do they say in UK? "i can't be bohtered with this stuff"

Score: 0

By Esquire

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 1:32 PM

Thank goodness my Dell notebook battery is made by LG :P

Score: 0

By Black-Wolf

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 12:33 PM

I smell Lawsuit....

Score: 0

By cranbers

edited Sep 21, 2006 - 12:03 PM

Great job sony, I just love the fact you have officially screwed every laptop manufacturer's rep. Airlines will no longer allow you to use your laptops on planes. Imagine being on a plan ride for 6 hours on business, and not being allowed to open up your laptop or even put the battery in for that matter.

Great job, great quality control. Can sony do anything right these days? I mean first the rootkins, then the ps3 being delayed with a fraction of them promised. Now bad batteries. What next?

I wonder if that is covered under warranty? The way I see it, it looks like an act of god.

Score: 0

By dougggg

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 10:45 PM

guess someone at Yahoo never got the memo :)

Score: 0

By colblip

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 11:53 AM

Probably he uses Yahoo mail.

Score: 0

By atab0y

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 12:47 AM

Lot's of possibilities... I.T. Dept. at Yahoo not doing their job. Possibly, due to lack of asset management. They may not even know who has what and where it is. This is not uncommon. Another possibility is "pc drift". I.T. assigns asset to employee. Employee leaves. Laptop not returned to I.T. Possible laptop isn't even owned by Yahoo. Someone may have stolen the laptops from their last job (parting gift). There are a lot contractors at Yahoo.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 12:30 PM

And after all that, you'd realize yahoo doesn't use Dell. It's someone's personal/consultant laptop.

Nice to blame their IT right off the bat though.

Score: 0

By jshurst

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 7:21 AM

I have to wait until October 5th for my replacement battery to be sent to me. I ordered a replacement pretty much the day it was made available and I'm still using my laptop. I don't think my boss is going to let me stop working until I get a replacement (although I don't use it on battery power, but I'm sure that there are others here who do).

Score: 0

By glock__17

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 3:29 AM

Perhaps Yahoo is just seeking some free publicity....if so, its working...

Hope my Fujitsu Laptops battery isn’t Sony built…“The possibilities are infinite”

Score: 0

By Galway

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 7:26 AM

Fujitsu laptops ... hmmm now theres something I never buy anymore. There harddrives suck, there hardware sucks. Somebody must like em, but i sure as hell dont.

Score: 0

By glock__17

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 9:57 PM

Hmmm.. well here in Japan they are very well built. Perhaps the overseas models are junk... unlike the Vaios which are junk no matter where they are produced or sold. My Fujitsu has been going strong for over 3 years without a single problem... time to upgrade though.

Score: 0

By imafurby

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 10:04 PM

Nice advertising placement for Dell laptops and batteries in the right hand column here.
Thanks for caring Google.

Score: 0

By markcramer

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 9:22 AM

Hmm, I don't see a Dell ad, I see one by Crucial saying "Don't get BURNED by cheap notebook memory".

No get burned by the SONY battery instead, or maybe the Sony rootkit, or the Sony flawed rootkit removal tool or the Sony prices or ...

I'm not bitter, really I'm not :-)

Score: 0

By crashoverride

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 7:53 PM

Leave it to one of the idiots at Yahoo.

Score: 0

By GS5

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 7:47 PM

Shouldn't the headline read "Sony battery Explodes at Yahoo"

I don't think Dell should take all the heat. (no pun intended) After all it's sony's screw up not Dell or Apple.

But it's still funny:-) Dude you're laptop's fire. LMAO

Score: 0

By zero131

edited Sep 21, 2006 - 5:26 PM

It's not just Sonys fault. IBM too uses Sony batteries (and others) but has no issues with their batteries for the simple reason their Thinkpads are better engineered, they feature integrated safeguards to prevent overcharging and monitoring to prevent overheating, if they malfunction then they automatically shut down before any damage can be caused.

Score: 0

By templar™

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 2:41 AM

Dell has been acting responsibly as far as I can see. They were the first to initiate a major recall.

However, I feel that Dell has been unfairly penalized by the tremendous amount of bad publicity surrounding this issue. In comparison, Apple is getting much less bad publicity.

While Sony, the real culprit, has been relatively quiet so far.

Score: 0

By GCoder

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 11:47 AM

Because none of Apple's laptop batteries have exploded in a ball of flames like Dell's have MANY TIMES (i can cite at least 3 instances where Dells have literally exploded!)

Score: 0

By nate

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 9:07 PM

In everything you buy, most parts are made by someone other than the company you are purchasing from. But when a manufacturer sells you something and warranties it, they are responsible for those parts. If the engine fails in your Toyota, it's Toyota's fault, not the company that supplied the bad part for the engine.

Sony should be taking more heat, but it was the responsibility of Dell (and Apple and Lenovo) to make sure what they were selling to you is of high quality.

Score: 0

By k12-IT

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 11:35 PM

Okay, so instead of blaming Sony we are to blame Dell, HP, Apple and Toshiba? Get real please, warranty or not the battery manufacturer is the most to blame as it's over a wide group of computer companies. All those companies can't have the same quality control specs.

Score: 0

By GS5

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 2:20 AM

Right on, quality control specs cannot be the same with all those companies.

Every company was affected by these faulty batteries, all except for Sony that is. I don’t recall any Vaio’s exploding. Mmm… Is Sony trying to sabotage the competition? I smell a conspiracy!!! LOL:-)

Score: 0

By wincement

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 2:44 AM

That's because no one in their right mind has purchased a Vaio in the past 3 years.

Score: 0

By GCoder

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 11:49 AM

VAIO? Who buys that overpriced crap?

Score: 0

By fewt

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 5:57 AM

Vaio, they still make those?

Can you still only run the OS that they come with, or can you actually upgrade the software on them now?

heh

Score: 0

By sytanek

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 9:09 PM

You forgot Toshiba now too.

Score: 0

By Jordanr05

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 8:23 PM

I agree 100%. Or at least read "Sony battery explodes in a Dell laptop at Yahoo".

Maybe Dell should have studied Sony's quality issues before using their parts - but still, Dell (as well as Apple and Lenovo) shouldn't be the focus here.

Score: 0

By bourgeoisdude

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 7:11 PM

*sigh* Lazy people, it might cause them pain and suffering to actually call dell for a free replacement battery. Shame.

I can almost guarantee they have never backed up their data, either.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 6:22 PM

This is wonderful PR for Dell for the next 4+ years. Probbaly < 20% of people potentially affected will go through the recall process. tick tick tick... *boom*

Score: 0

By GCoder

posted Sep 21, 2006 - 11:50 AM

tick tick boom is right

Score: 0

By jackamus

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 6:15 PM

I wonder if this affects people with Sony laptops as well? Yikes!! LOL

Score: 0

By yokozuna

posted Sep 20, 2006 - 5:40 PM

Dealing with Dell laptops would be perfect training for sappers :-)

Score: 0

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