Laptop Suicide Bombers Strike

Comment #3

justxploring — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:59:54 GMT

Thanks for your helpful comments, Todd. I've seen many docking stations and have been waiting for the prices to come down a bit. Right now that's not a priority for me, but I've seen a couple for around $150. To tell you the truth, I'd rather put my money toward a new desktop next year. I'm not too impressed with the power a laptop has compared to the same price as a desktop. I am guessing with all the time you spend and your expertise, you use multiple computers. I bought this sp... [ More ]

Comment #2

Todd — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 19:27:56 GMT

JE, Excellent comments, they make sense and you raise some good points. My advice is if you use your PC every day, leave it on 24/7. Turn it off only when you're going to be away for a week. All modern montors have power-saving modes, and most PCs do too. They turn off components (like the monitor and hard drive(s)) when they haven't been used for a long time (you get to specify how long). In the case of a laptop, they can be treated a little differently, because they have much better ... [ More ]

Comment #1

justxploring — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 19:08:35 GMT

I wonder if they'll suddenly be a mess of lawsuits. "I was on this porn site and thought I was gettin' all hot & bothered when I noticed it was my laptop burning my...." Actually, this is no laughing matter. Federal Express has reported many fires in flight from laptop batteries. I thought they only got hot when in use, but these were in the cargo area. I always remove my battery when I'm home. It's also not good for your hard drive to use both the AC power and the battery, because of the he... [ More ]

Original Blog Entry: Laptop Suicide Bombers Strike

Rip Snorter — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 13:23:59 GMT

Looks as though laptop computers have joined the scary, non-English-speaking darker-skinned people of the world in a plot to destroy America. Laptops are evidently able to recognize we're better than them and hate us for it, same as all those others. I haven't established whether these came from countries with large oil reserves they're selfishly hoarding:

Fire in the hull!9/21/2006 (link)
http://www.komando.com/about/my-log.aspx

Fire in the hull!9/21/2006

For the last several months, there have been numerous reports of laptops catching fire. The problem is that the battery overheats. Yikes!

Now, there is an e-mail making the rounds. It mentions that a Dell laptop was just sitting closed on a desk. It caught fire at Yahoo! headquarters.

The fire department was called. People had to vacate the building for some 45 minutes. It's a very scary picture.

Is it true? Yes, it happened this past week.

Imagine if this happened in your home or office and no one was around. Or worse, you were sleeping.

So, check your laptop maker's site for recall notices. But frankly, that may not be good enough.

Here's why:

A few weeks ago, an IBM Thinkpad went up in flames at the Los Angeles International Airport. A witness said, "The thing immediately flared up like a giant firework for about 15 seconds, then caught fire." Lenova, maker the Thinkpad, is investigating the matter. Thinkpads are not on the recall list.

I think we need to take some extra steps here.

I told everyone here in the studio who is using a laptop to take the battery out of their laptops and use the power supply only. And be sure to tell your family and friends too! They may not even be aware of the problems with the laptop batteries.

I recently received an email from Laura in Florida thanking me for mentioning it on my show. She was listening to the show on her way to take her iBook to the Apple store for a repair. She mentioned the Apple recall to the reps. They had not heard about it yet.

An ounce of prevention so they say...

Kim