Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference

[onehandle]

An Inquirer reader attending a conference in Japan was sat just feet away from a laptop computer that suddenly exploded into flames, in what could have been a deadly accident.

Gaston, our astonished reader reports: "The damn thing was on fire and produced several explosions for more than five minutes".

Should you witness such an event, his advice is, "Don't try anything courageous/stupid, stay away, away, away!"

"For the record, this is a Dell machine," notes Gaston. "It is only a matter of time until such an incident breaks out on a plane," he suggests.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

1. Terror Terror

Jaypan like merica is in danger from terroryst!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Someone was calculating the U.S. debt???

http://zfacts.com/p/461.html

[midnight]

13. Very insightful.

We can't even get a machine to wrap it's brain around the horrendous debt.

[Techno Dog]

14. .

:headbang:

[sam sarrha]

3. is this corporate Terrorism.. looks like a Bomb to me.. there just isn't

that much energy in a laptop battery

the competition making Dell look bad..??

[MyNameGoesHere]

5. ni-cad

batteries explode pretty good actually. Some Hydrogen is a by product of the charging.

[William Seger]

11. There's a LOT of energy in a lithium ion laptop battery

Ditto for cell phone batteries.

[lonestarnot]

4. Fuck a duck!

Must have been a DUer on the freep line! LOL

[Rex]

6. Dude!

You're gettin a Dell! BOOM!

[Catherine Vincent]

7. It's their new model HELL7200. LOL!

[lonestarnot]

9. 7200?

[Raster]

8. They should have NEVER fired that cute Dell guy!

Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!

[sam sarrha]

10. he probably set the bomb

[Deja Q]

12. Dell makes cheap products? Who'd have thunk that?

:sarcasm:

They've made trash for years. People need to avoid them like the plague; and their products have been getting worse.

May that article spread more quickly than the flames from that explosion.

[baldguy]

42. That's what you get with low-bid suppliers.

[Endangered Specie]

15. For the record, Ive witnessed a gateway laptop emit heavy smoke

and this and most my DU posts were written on a now 4 1/2 year old dell laptop

[sam sarrha]

16. yea but this looks like half a pound of C4

[onehandle]

17. That's what a chemical fire looks like.

More flare-like than a kaboom.

[Solon]

21. If it was a half pound of C4...

Those people standing around the laptop would have been red smears on walls and tables, plus the camera and film that photographed it wouldn't have survived.

[hootinholler]

33. With a half pound of C4

What walls?

-Hoot

[Solon]

36. Good point...

There would have been a crater and a shitload of dust.

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Was this a FUEL CELL-powered laptop? I've been worried about this for a

long time (long before they started banning lighters). Methanol is the fuel most mfgrs are using: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=55735&mesg_id=55735

[onehandle]

19. No, just a standard laptop made by Republican Dell. nt

[Art_from_Ark]

20. Here's a link to a Japanese web site with pictures

The headline reads: "Dell PC suddenly explodes and burns"

To the left of that was a Google Ad which said: "Recommended PCs from Dell: Because it's Dell, you can get an ever better deal!"

http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20060622_dell_danger/

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. And one of the commenters makes a pun

because Dell is pronounced "deru" in Japanese, which is also the word for "come out." So he says "Fire comes out of a Dell."

[Bonobo]

38. Link doesn't work!

Lydia, do you have a link to the original Japanese?

Nihongo de nan to kakareteiru no?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

40. Still works for me, although it may be in my browser's cache

Anyway, the comment simply reads:

"Dell no pasokon kara hi ga...Dell!"

[Bonobo]

41. That's a good one!

[diamondsndust]

22. Dell sucks anyways...

but they do make good targets... I bought one, fought with it for a month... threw it off the back porch and shot it! I'll stick with my 7 year old Hewlett Packard Pavilion ... never had the first problem with it.

DUDE?!?! You're getting a Dell???? <~~~~~ New Dell slogan

[Raster]

23. Skeet shooting with a laptop?

[diamondsndust]

24. actually it was a desktop model

and I have plenty of shooting room, I live on 12.5 acres out in the country...

[Raster]

37. YOU ARE MY HERO!!!

[William Seger]

25. Dell recalls batteries

http://support.dell.com/support/batteryrecall/index.aspx/i5000/en/Faq?c=us&l=en&lang=en&s=gen

[tabasco]

27. Dell sells GARBAGE !!

If you have one donate it to charity and get a real computer.

[eppur_se_muova]

28. Dell probes exploding laptop incident (Reuters/CNN)

Wednesday, June 28, 2006; Posted: 11:37 a.m. EDT (15:37 GMT)

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The Dell laptop computer seen bursting into flames in photographs on the Internet was being examined as part of the company's probe of the incident, Dell Inc. said Tuesday.

"We have captured the notebook and have begun investigating the event," Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said, confirming the computer was made by Dell but declining to specify the model. No one was hurt in the incident, she said.

The report of an exploding laptop at a conference in Osaka, Japan, accompanied by digital photos, was first published on technology industry news Web site The Inquirer last week.

Dell in December 2005 issued a battery recall for some of the batteries in its laptop due to overheating issues, according to the company's Web site.

Camden said it was too early to draw any conclusions and added that it did not appear that the incident had anything to do with the battery issues related to the recall.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/ptech/06/28/dell.laptop.reut/index.html

[hootinholler]

34. "We have captured the notebook and have begun investigating the event,"

WTF? How hard was it to capture it?

-Hoot

[Solon]

35. Maybe it grew legs and was trying to run away? n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

39. More likely jet-propelled escape. nt

"Quick! To the hydrofoil!"

[JHB]

43. SHHH! Be vewy vewy quiet...

Heheheheheheheehheh!

[file83]

29. The guy was giving a PowerPoint presentation on Bush's approval ratings...

:rofl: :nuke: CRASH AND BURN BABY!!! :nuke: :rofl:

[ContraBass Black]

30. So other companies don't use this battery brand?

Dell this, Dell that. How do you know yours is safer?

[BFBILLER]

31. The IT Guys told you not to surf porn, but you would not listen!

[Warren DeMontague]

32. Quick! Get Poppy to throw up on it!

:puke: