Laptops ain't so hot sometimes, other times they're too hot....

A local hot rod enthusiast fisherman lost his nicely restored 60 Ford pickup a few days back.

His laptop was in the cab, on the seat from what I understand when it "spontaneously" combusted.

Seems like the batteries may be the problem.

You can read about it here: www.kingmandailyminer.com...&TM=54000.81

Click on the article for additional information.


I've seen the pickup at various cruise nights and car shows and it was . . . very nice....


Something to be aware of for all of us.
Especially those who travel with their laptops and perhaps store them in warm-hot places.

Hey, that sounds interesting, but the link doesn't work.

LiPoly or LiIon can do this neat thing called "thermal runaway", all you have to do is get them hot enough and they'll burn right up. In a closed vehicle in Arizona in the summer, you could definitely hit the jackpot.

It's not a "problem." It's a consequence of using Lithium in the batteries. This "problem" has been known for sometime now and it's purely in the hands of the individual owner to make sure his laptop doesn't overheat for any reason. With that said, companies like Dell should be mindful to warn it's customers in a blunt and plain why, the proper usage of a "laptop"(at least modern laptops). The point at which a Lithium based battery becomes unstable and the aforementioned Thermal Runaway occurs is around 260 degrees celcius. You keep you laptop charging through the cig lighter and on the seat in the path of the beating sun on a hot summer day, and you're just asking for trouble.

[edit on 14-8-2006 by sardion2000]

[edit on 14-8-2006 by sardion2000]

The lithium ion batteries can be just a tad bit more unstable than just letting your laptop overheat. The NTSB strongly believes the lithium-ion batteries being transported by this UPS plane ended up burning it to the tarmac. The fire took four hours to put out.

www.ntsb.gov...

Originally posted by Valhall
The lithium ion batteries can be just a tad bit more unstable than just letting your laptop overheat. The NTSB strongly believes the lithium-ion batteries being transported by this UPS plane ended up burning it to the tarmac. The fire took four hours to put out.

www.ntsb.gov...

Hey at least the crew left with their members intact. I've heard of others who weren't so lucky, and in those cases, heavy use(like gaming) while charging was blamed on those accidents.

I've got a couple of different types of coolers that I've tried for my laptop. My favorite one has to be the freezer gel one because it cools efficiently and it doesn't require awkward wires. Stays cold for quite awhile, even with a fairly hot laptop. www.chillpak.com...

(g) Even got it autographed by the designer (woohoo!)

The NTSB strongly believes the lithium-ion batteries being transported by this UPS plane ended up burning it to the tarmac. The fire took four hours to put out.

Could they be full of....THERMITE?

(ominous chord)

Originally posted by Tom Bedlam

Could they be full of....THERMITE?

(ominous chord)

LOL - now that would be a big conspiratorial full circle, wouldn't it?

[edit on 8-14-2006 by Valhall]

No-one expects...THERMITE!

(ominous chord)

Back on the subject, sorta, you can get some really nasty effects if either the battery control board processor, its code, or the charger in the laptop are nuts.

Most laptop packs have a separate little micro that actually controls all the charging from the laptop side. There's an I2C bus that they talk back and forth on. The charger in the laptop receives commands from the pack requesting particular voltage and current limits, and the pack is supposed to do all the coulomb counting and charge regime switchover.

SOME controllers and algorithms suck the big one (*coff*microchip*coff*) and either fail to communicate correct data occasionally (hey, big boy, send me 20 or 30 Amps!) or just wander away to program hades leaving the pack to charge endlessly. *Supposedly* there is a fail-safe pack protector that will *always* save the machine from combustion. Supposedly. I have seen pack designs in which it was disabled or didn't function properly.



[edit on 14-8-2006 by Tom Bedlam]