Use A Laptop? A Ticking Time Bomb May Be On Your Lap!

It's gettin' hot in herre! Very, very hot! Hot enough for several laptops to explode causing small fires and in several cases, minor burns. You may of heard about a Dell laptop that exploded into flames at a Japan conference back in June. Little did we know at the time, that this would presaged one of the largest recalls in history. It started with 4.1 million notebooks from Dell and followed 10 days later with 1.8 million notebooks from Apple. Not to mention laptops being recalled from HP and Sony as well. The cause - a faulty battery made by Sony Energy Devices that is found in today's hottest (pun intended) selling laptops.

The technical reason for the batteries overheating is due to contamination of metal particles inside the lithium-ion battery cells. The microscopic particles are able to bridge a porous separator between the positively and negatively charged parts of the cell and cause a short circuit. This sets off a chemical chain reaction that can lead to the release of hot gases and liquids, smoke or fire. In non-technical jargon, it gives new meaning to the phrase "fire crotch". The mass battery recall will run Dell and Apple roughly $259 million and has dropped Sony's stock price by 5%.

Of course I'm not surprised to hear of this recall considering I just bought myself and all of my engineers Dell Inspiron laptops, all of which are recalled! It's pain to do the recall, but it would be more pain to have 3rd degree ball burns treated. To see if your laptop is recalled, both Dell and Apple have setup websites that help you identify problem batteries in question. There you will also find details on how you can exchange your toasty battery. Remember, if you play with fire, you're going to get burned. Do the smart thing and follow-thru with the recall.

• Dell Laptop Battery Recall
• Apple Laptop Battery Recall

Burn Victim #1, A Dell

Burn Victim #2, Another Dell

Burn Victim #3, Yet Another Dell

Burn Victim #4, Yes, You Guessed It - One More Dell

Burn Victim #5, An Apple PowerBook

Burn Victim #6, A Sony Vaio

Do you like watching things catch fire? Me too! So I hope you enjoyed the singed photo gallery. I'm sure there are more burn victims out there, but these are just a noteworthy few.