Spontaneous Dell combustion - round 2

[Dr Mordrid]

Link.....

Ohio Man's Dell Laptop Bursts into Flames

Latest in a series of laptop fires

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.Com
August 24, 2007

A computer network administrator at a Columbus, Ohio, hospital is the latest consumer to encounter the flaming laptop syndrome.

Douglas Brown said his Dell 9200 wide-screen laptop's batteries exploded into flames, it "looked like fireworks which would have been cool had it not been in my house."

Brown called 911 and the fire department responded with two pumpers, a ladder truck, the HAZMAT unit, an ambulance and the battalion chief.

"Way too much manpower for one little laptop," he said, but "I guess it sounded like it was more then it really was" to the 911 dispatcher.

It's the latest in a series of fires and meltdowns involving the lithium-ion batteries used in laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices.
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[Technoid]

Makes you wanna charge any lithium-ion batteries in a steel pan

Perhaps under the kitchen fan, so if they burst in flames you wont necessarily get any chemical smoke in your house

[Marshmallowman]

I am not looking forward to the first electric car battery incident

[Dr Mordrid]

Dunno about the Japanese & Euro makers but GM & Ford are going to use nano-tech LiION batteries. Their electrodes have a much larger surface area, don't heat up and in cars are estimated to have a 15-20 year lifetime.

Companies include A123 Systems and Altairnano (electrode tech), an outfit in France (? name) and Toshiba.

A123 Systems uses tech from MIT, has the GM VOLT dev. contract and were highly featured at last years Detroit Intl. Auto Show. Part owners include MIT, General Electric, Motorola, Qualcomm and Duracell.

MIT has also announced an ultra-thin LiION anode tech constructed by viruses that has 3x the power density of other techs.