Laptop batter recall

http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6628115.html?tag=nl.e501

Just got this as a newsletter this morning.

WT

 

Thanks Wayne. I had seen the story on TV but didn't catch which models
had the problem. I guess I will be getting two new batteries.

Brad

 

THAT'S A COOL LINK.

I was able to enter my battery's id tag and get confirmation that my battery
was not affected!

Thanks Wayne.

 

A note to the wise . . . the recall may not have "caught" all the
batteries that exhibit the problem. My Dell Latitude D800's battery
overheated the entire laptop to an alarming degree last week, and the
battery in question was NOT on the list of those being recalled. I
pulled the laptop out of the case one evening after having put it on
"Standby" at work and almost dropped the thing because it was so hot. I
had to set it down really quick -- almost burned my fingers.
Fortunately I knew to pull the battery out first thing, and I won't put
that battery back in again. Lithium ion batteries require circuitry to
prevent "runaway" reactions, and faulty circuitry (or shorted-out
circuitry) can lead to fires. That's probably what's happening. And
like most manufacturers/OEMs, Dell is probably trying to keep its losses
to a minimum.

To those of you who have laptops in general, BEWARE!! Don't put your
unit on Standby and then just forget about it. Fire it back up and use
it within a relatively short perios of time and then SHUT IT DOWN or put
it in Hibernate mode before you store it away.

'Sporky'

 

Sporky, unfortunately, I learned this the hard way with my Dell
Inspiron 8000 back 5 years ago.

The Standby mode is really something that should never EVER be used
once the laptop is off a table top. Once you close the lid, you can
still have the machine generate a LOT of heat. I put my Inspiron in a
bag and went to the shop and it was running and hotter than heck once I
took the laptop out. I never left the machine in Standby again, when I
went to move the laptop.

Standby in a PC is nothing like Sleep in a Mac OSX laptop as far as
I've seen.

Bo