Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference

[mbeige]

From experience, panget ang Dell. Pati yung service nila bulok. I had a heatsink + fan ordered one time for the desktop dahil nasira daw at nag overheat. Fine, bayad kami and had it installed. Warranty was 3 months.

Right after nung warranty, nasira ulit yung bagong heatsink + fan assembly!

Technical assistance will bring you to call centers in Libis, etc...which isn't bad. Dito sa US kasi madalas na nakakasagot either bumbay or pinoy. Ang hirap kausapin ng bumbay...

So we got a Compaq PC instead.

Dell-ikado nga...

[Jun aka Pekto]

Dito sa US kasi madalas na nakakasagot either bumbay or pinoy. Ang hirap kausapin ng bumbay...

When I had to reactivate the XP Home that came with our laptop (after deleting a Linux partition and reformat), an obvious Hindu voice was on the other side judging by the accent. I had no problems catching what he said on speakerphone. Yet, one of the neighborhood kids I play basketball with was playing Battlefield 2 on my pc. He couldn't make heads and tails of what the MS tech was saying.

I concluded that some people just can't understand beyond their own accent. To be fair, I'm not immune myself. I had a hard time understanding several true-blooded Yankees when I visited Bangor, Maine.

I also had to reactive a long-dormant license of XP Pro dating back from Nov 2001. Again, a Hindu voice answered, this time female. Same thing. I had no problems talking to her and understanding what she said despite the heavy Hindu accent.

[109]

to DELL or not to DELL?

[nugundam93]

ganito pala itsura pag sumabog

tomshardwareguide.com also put out those pics. hehehehe. aliw.

[ownertype]

yung mga bago issue dell latitude D610 laptop dito sa office nirecall yung mga batteries.

[C#@RD]

two new info's on the burning dell laptops, but these stories are not confirmed yet.

Man blames Dell laptop for house fire



By ERIN BRYCE



erin.bryce*heraldtribune.com

SOUTH VENICE -- A fire that destroyed a South Venice house and left a family of five homeless early Thursday may have been sparked by a Dell computer model that was recalled by the company because its battery was a fire hazard.

Homeowner Louis Minnear, 36, said his wife's Dell laptop was sitting on papers on the family's couch when the couch mysteriously caught fire.

Minnear, who was staying with his family at a nearby motel Thursday night, said he is "convinced" the fire was started by the computer's battery.

The State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating, and has not ruled on the cause of the fire.

"None of us know what the cause is," said Assistant Fire Chief Paul Dezzi. "That's why we called the fire marshal."

Dezzi said he knew there was a computer on the couch when the house burned, but was not aware that the computer was a Dell. He said the fire marshal's office should issue a preliminary report on the cause today.

The flames took less than 20 minutes to move through the Falkland Road home, causing severe damage and leaving the structure uninhabitable. Sarasota County firefighters arrived at about 6:30 a.m.; they had the flames extinguished in 10 minutes.

The family lost almost all of its possessions, including 843 DVDs.

The fire came three days after Dell recalled 4.1 million notebook computer batteries. The company warned consumers the batteries could erupt in flames.

The recall is the largest safety recall in history for the consumer electronics industry.

Dell, the world's largest PC maker, said the lithium-ion batteries were made by Sony and were installed in notebooks sold between April 2004 and July 18 of this year. Minnear said he bought the family PC two years ago. It is a Latitude D500, one of the models on the list with potential battery problems.

Minnear said he heard about the recall this week, but didn't have the chance to do anything about it.

Minnear's wife, Jeanne, used the laptop computer for work while at home. She is a computer programmer with Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Minnear said he smelled what he thought was an electrical fire at about 5 a.m. But after a quick sweep through the house, he went back to bed.

About 45 minutes later, Minnear woke up again and saw that his couch was engulfed in flames.

He led his pregnant wife, 9-month-old son and two dogs out of the house. Once outside, Minnear said he scrambled back inside the house two more times, grabbing what little he could salvage before the flames and heat got to be too much. He salvaged wedding pictures, baby toys and his wife's purse.

The family lost everything else. Much of the home is charred. From the front door, a Sesame Street Elmo doll sits on the house's edge, its red fur charred black. The smell of black soot and melted plastic reaches to the street's edge.

"It moved fast; it burned hot," Minnear said. "But they got it out quickly."

American Red Cross officials have given the Minnear family a three-night stay in a local hotel and vouchers for food and clothing. The family has until Sunday to find a rental place. Their insurance company said it would be a year before they'd be back in their home.

Neighbor Randy Doby, who was awakened by his barking dog once the flames rose, said it was hard to watch the family see their house burn.

"It was sad," Doby said. "You hated to see that."

Minnear said his two older sons were staying with family and didn't have to experience the fire.

He said his sons have taken it differently.

While sifting through their belongings today, their 12-year-old son, Louis, saw that his favorite teddy bear had melted. Louis was crushed, Minnear said.

Meanwhile, their 6-year-old son was more concerned about his mother missing her DVD movie collection, which melted in the flames.

"It's funny what kids worry about," Minnear said.

Dell documented six instances since December in which notebooks overheated or caught fire. None of the incidents resulted in injuries or death.

Minnear said its hard to imagine that his home computer caused his house to burn down.

"It isn't something you never think about," Minnear said. "I'm just still kind of in shock over the whole thing."


************************************************** ******


Another Dell System Exploded/Caught Fire



Vernon Hills (IL) - It began with a soft pop and then turned into a one hot and blazing notebook: Henrik Gustavvson saw one of his firm's Dell computers bursting into flames and documented the events. The story, first published in the Tom's Hardware Forumz, have become an Internet sensation - reason enough for TG Daily to learn more about the story behind the pictures.
When was the last time you saw a laptop catch fire? For Henrik Gustavsson and his co-workers at a process automation firm in Vernon Hills, Ill., "last week" would be the answer. Gustavsson told TG Daily that at around 4 pm CST on 25 July, a colleague informed him something was on fire in another part of the office. He rushed over to the area and saw several people trying to put out a Dell laptop that was on fire. And while other employees grabbed fire extinguishers, Gustavsson picked up his digital camera.

"I read about the laptop in Japan burning, but never thought I would see it in person," said Gustavsson.

Gustavsson and another employee who only wants to be identified as "Bob" say the owner of the laptop had just returned from a business trip and plugged it into the docking station. The laptop had only been in the docking station for about half an hour when it one could hear "popping and crackling," according to Bob who was sitting right next to the laptop.

"I heard a small poof and a couple of crackling noises. Then a hissing noise that sounded like a flare going off," said Box. As he looked over to the laptop, he saw a cloud of smoke billowing up from the docking station and smelled the familiar "fried electronics" smell.

"I thought it was a power surge and turned off my computer," said Bob. Then the Dell popped into flames 8 to 10" tall and became a "conflagration" according to Bob. One employee tried to blow out the flames like a birthday cake, but that obviously didn't work too well. "The flames went down for a second, but then came back up," Bob said.

Employees then doused the laptop with fire extinguishers, but it wouldn't stop burning. "We hit it three to four times, but it wasn't going to stop burning until the battery was gone," said Bob. Gustavsson arrived with his 7.2 megapixel camera and started snapping pictures just as someone ripped the still burning laptop from the docking station and threw it out the building on a cement surface.

So where was the owner's laptop during all of this? He was in a different part of the building and ran back when employees told him there was a fire in his part of the office. Gustavsson says, "I was taking pictures when the owner came back. He went back to his dockstation to try to grab his laptop, but didn't realize that it was actually his laptop that had caught on fire."

Employees started telling the owner that his laptop had "exploded", but forgot to mention that it was outside. He looked down at the empty desk and thought his laptop had literally exploded into nothingness. "He came back and just saw the burn mark. The expression on his face was priceless," says Gustavsson.

Fire trucks arrived and eager fire fighters loaded with breathing devices and hatchets rushed in. What they saw was a smoke-filled office and a very well-done laptop on the ground. The fire had burned a hole completely through the bottom right portion of the laptop and there was very little left of the lithium-ion battery.

While laptops are expensive, many people consider the data on the hard-drive to be invaluable. Gustavsson told us that the hard-drive survived and the owner suffered almost no downtime. "They pulled the hard-drive, which was obviously still a little bit warm and dusty, and then put it in a different laptop." The transplanted hard-drive and the new laptop apparently are working just fine.

Dell has offered to replace everything that was damaged by the fire. Gustavsson says that Dell found out about the laptop fire through the "grape vine" and wants to replace the computer, docking station and LCD monitor.

Has the fire incident shaken Henrik Gustavsson's faith in Dell? He believes the fire was a fluke accident and mentioned that he understands that laptop batteries are made by a third-party. "I'm actually pleased with Dell computers and service and I'll still keep using Dells," said Gustavsson.