Dell Mini 9 Explodes, Burns Hole in Floor
Netbooks are small, affordable, basic computers. They don't run hot enough to warrant cooling solutions like the ones found in full size laptops. Or do they?
One Consumerist reader says her netbook nearly burnt her house down. Hannah said she unplugged her Dell Mini 9, brought it downstairs and laid it on the floor. Hannah says she heard a popping noise as the laptop began to hiss and sizzle while and the room started to fill up with smoke.
"Hi, last night I unplugged my laptop from its charger, carried it downstairs, and placed it on the wood floor of my living room.
I heard a loud popping sound and the room immediately filled with smoke while the laptop hissed and sizzled. It died down, I pushed it with my foot, and it stared hissing again. There is a large scorch mark on my floor.
It goes without saying, I am glad the laptop was not on my couch ...or in an airplane."
Hannah contacted the Consumerist who put her in touch with Dell. Dell paid to have the netbook FedExed to them and sent her a replacement, upgraded laptop for free. Dell said its Forensic Electrical Engineers had received the laptop but added that the company said it had no other information as to what may have caused the malfunction. The company promised it would sort things out, though.
"We take any report like this very seriously, and, as a matter of policy, our safety teams investigate thoroughly following any issue like this," said Dell. "We will get to the bottom of this."
The burn area seems to indicate an exploding battery. Hopefully this is just an isolated incident and not the start of a massive Dell battery recall.
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Dude! Your Dell came fully loaded! It even comes with fire!
Guess Dell is following the Apple exploding battery trend
damn posers!
"... I am glad the laptop was not on my couch ...or in an airplane"
Oh my god what if it was on her lap (you know, it is a laptop). Massive $$$ (and pain as well). Lucky girl.
Last night... She brought it downstairs unplugged...
in max 2-3 hours the computer had to be turned off...
Or really it was in a furry couch or it had to be with in 1 hour of unpluging it...
It is good way of getting a free upgrade... but
i do not buy it
She had time to snap a picture? LOL I love this generation.
More cheap Chinese junk.
Are they going to pay for her a new floor too?
i love pics of burned Dells. lol
what about the damage to the floor? I'm sure it'd be a lot more expensive to fix that than to buy a crappy atom computer.
apparently dell decided to play some crysis on her floor.
what about the damage to the floor? I'm sure it'd be a lot more expensive to fix that than to buy a crappy atom computer.
By the size of that room, it might be around 1000-2000 depending on geographic location and who's doing it. You can't just fix that particular damaged floor. You have to redo the entire room.
Good thing it wasn't a Mac.. smoking voids the warranty
They should also pay for her floor or at least a half of the repair.
I think her first mistake was to send it to Dell, rather than keep it for her lawyers.
OOPS!
More cheap Chinese junk.
90%+ of the shit in your house came from foreign countries.
if u love ur USA shit so much, go all american, but before then,
just stfu already bitch.
I'm just curious - why was the laptop placed in the middle of the floor? There are about five laptops in my house, and none of them get set on the floor when they are or aren't in use. That's just a good way to get them stepped on.
They shouldn't have been trying to play Crysis on it...
too bad it can barely be considered a netbook....
I bet you the battery was microwaved! How else do you get a battery to explode like that? They fixed the bad battery issues of the past! Why else would it be placed on the ground in the middle of an empty room? The wood floor adds dramatic effect too, not to mention smoke. And they got a free upgrade too boot! Look at the keys on that laptop, all shiney and worn, I'll bet it was time for an upgrade and they figured the easiest way was to get dell to fit the bill for the whole thing!
What happened to the pictures on the related story?
"I heard a small poof:" The story of a Dell on fire
Those pictures I took are way better than these ones...
Cylindrical lithium ion batteries can catch fire if they are punctured, left under the sun to bake for a day or shorted. I'm sure there's a whole lot more ways on the list but the most common failures listed above are from user stupidity or a faulty overcharge prevention circuit which are almost non-existent. Nowadays, even the cheapest chinese cells have built in pressure relief valves so that even in the worst case, they will "only" catch fire.
I'm not one to play online detective but why would she put her laptop on the floor two feet away from her front door? It looks more like she kicked it there after it started burning and if she really has a reason to hide that, who knows what she really did to it.
"Hannah says she head a popping noise"
Who learned you how to spoke?
hehehehe
Hey Jane, figured you might want to fix this...
iPod Touch < Tsar Bomba < Dell Mini
Guess Dell is following the Apple exploding battery trend damn posers!
lol
I didn't know you could overclock Netbooks.
I bet you the battery was microwaved! How else do you get a battery to explode like that? They fixed the bad battery issues of the past! Why else would it be placed on the ground in the middle of an empty room? The wood floor adds dramatic effect too, not to mention smoke. And they got a free upgrade too boot! Look at the keys on that laptop, all shiney and worn, I'll bet it was time for an upgrade and they figured the easiest way was to get dell to fit the bill for the whole thing!
Is that sarcasm or do you really think someone would ruin their expensive floor just to score an upgrade to a cheap-ass atom based netbook? Did you wake up on the stupid side of the bed this morning?
Funny that she set it down in the middle of the floor, how many people unplug something and put down on the floo,r open and in the middle. Seem kind of weird.