Dell Laptop literally exploded... looking for next steps

[TheMouse]

My friend's (former gf) Dell Laptop exploded. She stepped out of the room, and heard a reasonably load boom. She thought that it might have been snow falling off the roof or something, but started smelling smoke and eventually heard the smoke alarms. She went back to the room and saw the mess.

The Optical drive was ejected across the room. Plastic pieces everywhere included some sort of ashy substance all over the wall behind her desk and on a curtain about 5 feet away from desk. I was not present during this.

Current status: I informed her to take pictures (ofcourse!) and call the fire department and tell them the laptop exploded. The fire department asked her (and her parents) to evacuate the home immediately and wait for them to arrive. At this time I got off the phone with her.

Data backups are fully intact on a remote device. No one was hurt. Nearby walls and curtains can be considered damaged. Carpet was burned by flying fragments. Also, laptop is years out of warranty.

Questions:

1) Has anyone experienced this?
2) Does dell have any liability here? Would the fire inspector be able to provide any insight here?
3) Does she have to worry about any toxicity left behind by the explosion? (She has 2 cats)
4) How do you clean the ash and stuff off the walls?
5) Anyone interested in purchasing an exploded dell?
6) Any other next steps?

 

[bruceb]

1): No, thankfully.
2): No, unless it was under warranty.
3): Probably not, as long as nothing is ingested.
4): Can't say, but start with like Fantastic or 409 and go from there.
5): No
6): Replace computer

It just sounds like the battery finally called it quits, bigt ime.

 

[Athadeus]

1) There have been some huge recalls in the past for laptops with batteries made by Sony. I never had a laptop explode, guess the closest thing I saw was someone bringing their laptop into Firedog at Circuit City who 'accidentally' ran over their laptop with their car so it was about as bad as exploded.

2) Pretty sure there is liability even after the warranty. If she was using an aftermarket battery or running it while it sat on a pillow then probably not. Unless you're a real cheapo though, the legal hassle is probably not worth your time.

3) Yeah, as bruceb said, unless the cats have licked the powder no issues. Don't expect Dell to have any responsibility for the health of the pets though.

4) I just 409ed everything at college as a first shot. Otherwise you'll have to ask jeeves or google.

5) I don't suppose you have any really valuable data like your swiss bank account numbers on the damaged hdd? You could probably sell the screen and the power source for the flourescent backlight if they aren't damaged.

6) Replace computer (more often)

Also see:
https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/
http://support.dell.com/support/batteryrecall/index.aspx/en/main

 

[TheMouse]

Fire department electronics inspector confirmed battery was cause of explosion and Dell may not be liable for repair of the laptop, but definately could be liable for any damaged the explosion caused.

 

[TheMouse]

1) There have been some huge recalls in the past for laptops with batteries made by Sony. I never had a laptop explode, guess the closest thing I saw was someone bringing their laptop into Firedog at Circuit City who 'accidentally' ran over their laptop with their car so it was about as bad as exploded.

2) Pretty sure there is liability even after the warranty. If she was using an aftermarket battery or running it while it sat on a pillow then probably not. Unless you're a real cheapo though, the legal hassle is probably not worth your time.

3) Yeah, as bruceb said, unless the cats have licked the powder no issues. Don't expect Dell to have any responsibility for the health of the pets though.

4) I just 409ed everything at college as a first shot. Otherwise you'll have to ask jeeves or google.

5) I don't suppose you have any really valuable data like your swiss bank account numbers on the damaged hdd? You could probably sell the screen and the power source for the flourescent backlight if they aren't damaged.

6) Replace computer (more often)

Also see:
https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/
http://support.dell.com/support/batteryrecall/index.aspx/en/main

Thanks for your response.


1) We had checked for battery recall several times. This particular model did have a recall, but our serial # was not in range to qualify for it.

2) Had factory battery, still held charge for about 90 minutes. It was on a computer desk, and used more like a desktop once she had graduated from college a few years ago.

3) agree

4) Thanks

5) All data is backed up, so no issues here.

6) I'm not against replacing computers when needed... but computers should never be a fire hazard regardless of how old they get. The computer is old, but not ancient. It runs XP and all productivity software at fairly fast speeds.

 

[RebateMonger]

Sony and laptop manufacturer's didn't always get every "problem" battery on their lists. It looks like Dell, for instance, added more numbers to their 2006 recall in 2008. Toshiba did the same, with a second or third recall also centered around Sony cells of the same era.

 

[tcsenter]

Get your documentation together and send a letter to Dell's general counsel, without requesting any monies or compensation, just to inform them what happened and what documentation she has of it.

Trust me, they will contact her about a dollar amount.

 

[TheMouse]

Get your documentation together and send a letter to Dell's general counsel, without requesting any monies or compensation, just to inform them what happened and what documentation she has of it.

Trust me, they will contact her about a dollar amount.

Thanks, that seems like a reasonable plan. We're going to put it off until Monday before taking any action... just to make sure we don't jump any guns. Hopefully by then the fire department will have the report available as well.

 

[SirGeeO]

WOW...as I read this, I immediately unplugged my laptop (or was her's running, just off the battery?) fearing the same...lol.. what a crazy event that had to be....hopefully this isn't going to become a trend.

 

[TheMouse]

WOW...as I read this, I immediately unplugged my laptop (or was her's running, just off the battery?) fearing the same...lol.. what a crazy event that had to be....hopefully this isn't going to become a trend.

Her laptop was plugged into an APC UPS unit. The UPS circuit breaker actually tripped cutting off any additional power to the laptop.... so atleast we know that works the way it should.