SillyDog701

[Antony]

CBS 3 has a story about how a laptop can burn down the house - Laptop Fire Danger.

News video is available on the right of that page (after short commercial).



Cause:

Security consultant Scott Rynd is one of many industry insiders saying the problem focuses on the batteries.

Computers are smaller, so the lithium ion batteries are getting smaller. The batteries are getting over packed with power and overheating.

In 2004 and 2005, Apple, Dell and Hewlett Packard collectively recalled more than 300-thousand laptop batteries "due to fire hazards."

Our suggestion:

• If you are getting new carpets for your house, make sure you get heat resistant (fire safe) type of carpet for your house.
• Frequently checking the company website and see if your laptop's battery is in the recall list. Visit SillyDog701 Message Centre and MacCentre701 frequently, we will report Apple laptop battery recalls.

(related: a few years back, Wellander reported to us that his hard drive caught on fire ([sdt=1412]hard drive disk caaugth on file[/sdt]). Unexpected fire do occur, be careful.)

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[Don_HH2K]

I'd like to point out that there are many reasons a laptop can overheat and do this sort of thing other than simply having a faulty battery. Physically moving parts, such as hard drives and CD drives, naturally generate heat. The faster the drive, the more heat it generates.

This usually isn't a problem, but let's take a situation where you decide to copy whatever's on a CD to your hard drive at full-speed, and try running a PC game at the same time. The CD drive and hard drive platters are all going to be spinning all at once, and on top of that you're causing your graphics processor to heat up. If things get hot enough, most laptops have a temperature throttle that will cut the power if things go over a certain temperature. That isn't to say that damage won't be done by the time it kicks in -- you could be looking at a potential hazard due to melted plastic or heated wires.

To note, the most fire-prone peripherals in a laptop are, in order, the battery, hard drive / CD drive, and in certain circumstances, your CPU and/or GPU.

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[Tidus]

I used to have an old FIC Cedar laptop (they're extinct!), it was only a Pentium 1 166MHz, and it used to get red hot!

Another thing about laptops, is that apart from causing fires, they can cause infertility!

If kept on your lap (males only, this doesn't apply to females, lucky girls!) the heat generated by a laptop can keep sperm too warm!

So watch out fellas! I don't use my laptop on my lap any more, even though my Tiny A440 is much more modern than my FIC Cedar (it's a 1GHz CPU), and doesn't emit anywhere near as much heat!

So as well as being an IT Senior Executive, i'm also a part time medical officer

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[Don_HH2K]

Maybe I should just stay away from my laptop, then... A few more degrees and there'd be no need for a gas range to cook food anymore.

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[Antony]

Another thing about laptops, is that apart from causing fires, they can cause infertility!

If kept on your lap (males only, this doesn't apply to females, lucky girls!) the heat generated by a laptop can keep sperm too warm!

That's something I've heard of, but if you put a laptop on your lap, it would only keep your lap warm, it shouldn't cause any infertility.

We all know that PowerBooks are good for keeping legs warm during winter times

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