iBook battery catches fire

Actually, I've had a thought about the whole wire being plugged in. I can honestly imagine my laptop being plugged in the living room, me walking back into it to find it sparking and just grabbing the laptop and dragging the plug from the power point and dumping the lot in garden.

But yeah "We all could have died" does scream a bit of lawsuit inducing fear.

Lithium-ion batteries can become *extremely* dangerous when damaged, short-circuited, overcharged, or overloaded. This is true of many battery types, but particularly Li-ion due to the high energy content and materials used.

Read the warning label the next time you buy a pack of alkaline batteries. Its there for a reason.

See this page for one manufacturer'€™s safety video:

http://www.valence.com/SafetyVideo.asp

Sorry, its Windows Media Player only. Its also made with an eye for safety and advertisement, NOT sensationalism.

If you look at the pic posted with this article as well as the second last pic on the side of the article it sure looks like the BIOS-driven hibernate light is still blinking.
How is that possible if the battery supposedly exploded?

1) Isn't the battery on the LEFT side, away from the flames?

2) They carried while it was hot enough to melt the carpet or on fire?

3) They drag the powercord with it so well that it is plugged in or perfectly lined up by chance?

4) Why does the screen look undamaged?

SCAM!

I doubt it is a scam. This shouldn't have happened. The reporter upplayed the danger.

I'd have shut the lid and unplgged it from the adapter. It isn't plausable to think they'd pop the battery though.

Note there were two adults there filming, mom and dad were there. I'm sure they have proof by producing a melted computer, action photos not withstanding. I suggest they check their smoke alarm batteries and buy a fire extinguisher. I wonder if a LiOn fire would be put out by water or ABC.

Yes, I bet there are a LOT of people who leave there 11 yo unattended with a TV, computer, PS2, etc.

I've had laptops for 15 years on and off carpet, never had one get more than annoyingly warm. Yes, this was likely a faulty battery. It is why we have warranties and the like. Sadly they likely already have a lawyer.

Hey guys,

While this might be staged i find it hilarious that you think the machine overheated from being on carpet.

The heat the machine could generate from things such as the CPU are nowhere near the temperature to cause a carpet to catch fire, the machine should switch off when it gets just over 100 celcius, which is just enough to boil water.

Never in my career have i heard of a laptop overheating and causing something underneath it to catch fire...

It is of my opinion that one of two things happened, it either was staged or the battery failed (the batteries on iBook G4's have been recalled and likely the customer was never informed)

And thats coming from an Acer Technician

I don't believe this is real for a second! Sure, a laptop could possibly catch on fire if left on while on a carpet (if it didn't go to sleep), but this story seems liked a totaly contrived alarmist hoax. About as real as all the UFO pictures we've all seen. Rubbish!

They keep mentioning the battery was the thing that caught fire, well, what do you think a battery is going to do when it is installed in an overheating computer that isn't getting proper ventilation?

Anyone remember the AUDI fiasco 20 (or so) years ago? 60 Minutes ran the story that people were suffering horrible accidents with Audis when the driver stepped on the brake and instead of stopping the car went zooming ahead (or backward if in reverse). Nothing was ever shown to be wrong with the cars (and of course, we now know that these accidents were the result of stepping on the wrong pedal, and then blaming the car for the tragedy afterward), but Audi lost hundreds of millions of dollars of business in the following years.

The scary thing is that this kind of junk science allegation happens all the time. Obviously, what should happen (a full, objective and scientific investigation into this burning iBook) may not, and we'll be left with the sensationalism of stupid news channels goading us to reach a verdict on the basis of almost no relevant facts at all. It's true, this family might be pulling a scam... but we can be SURE that the news media is pulling one (as they do almost every night) with this abject failure to do their jobs.

By the way, I read that – of the 3 companies mentioned last night – HP has received 20 complaints of fires (as of April of this year), which would account for approximately half of the 43 or 44 total that have been made in the past 5 years. Nonetheless, the Apple logo was shown in the news report in all but one of the dozen or so close ups of laptops. Granted, it was a story about an iBook, but that's just plain misleading.

I'm sure she was going to douse the flames something, but all she had was the half gallon on Albertson's Vodka...Don't all midwestern housewives spend the afternoons getting soused?