Guest #1 February 11, 2007 Story here If you have a Dell laptop (or any laptop with a battery made by Sony [INCLUDES MACS!]), you'd better get on your mfr's website or one of the comsumer protection sites and query your battery's lot number. This isn't a joke, folks. "Dude, you're getting a burned down house!" mh . ."The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ltdiver 3 #2 February 11, 2007 Apple has sent me many notices about this kind of battery being faulty, and offering to replace it for free. Each time I check my laptop's serial number and it's not listed in the series of batteries needing to be changed. I'd think that all batteries (Dell's included) had been located and notices sent to their respective owners. That is, if they took the time to register their purchase. Sucks, however, if this person was the first to discover the bad batch of batteries that triggered the recall, though. ltdiver Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,132 #3 February 11, 2007 Li-ion batteries are indeed dangerous critters. We did a LOT of testing with our satellite phone battery packs to ensure that shorts/punctures/charging with a bad cell would not cause fires. During the course of testing we got some pretty spectacular explosions. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gawain 0 #4 February 11, 2007 QuoteLi-ion batteries are indeed dangerous critters. We did a LOT of testing with our satellite phone battery packs to ensure that shorts/punctures/charging with a bad cell would not cause fires. During the course of testing we got some pretty spectacular explosions. I was just watching a bit on Discovery last night about a Japanese electric car, running on Li-ion batteries. What is it about them that make them so dangerous. They're good enough for cell phones and cameras. Is it related to the amount of power being drawn from them?So I try and I scream and I beg and I sigh Just to prove I'm alive, and it's alright 'Cause tonight there's a way I'll make light of my treacherous life Make light! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billvon 3,132 #5 February 12, 2007 >What is it about them that make them so dangerous. Overcharge causes the lithium to plate the electrodes. (In normal usage there is no lithium metal in the battery, just ions in solution.) This makes the battery much less stable and can result in a plating bridge between electrodes. This can cause the battery to heat, swell and burst. If this is accompanied by a spark (by, say, the plating overheating when the cell bursts) there can be a fire; the electrolyte and lithium metal are both flammable. Most good li-ion battery packs have three separate mechanisms to prevent this - a resettable overcharge circuit that monitors current and voltage at _every_ cell, a non-resettable overcharge "fuse" and a cell-based pressure sensor that opens the circuit if internal pressure rises. A second issue can be caused by an output short circuit. If the protection circuit doesn't cut the connection during a short circuit, high currents can flow and the cell can swell and burst. (These are often referred to as "keychain shorts" due to the most common means of causing them.) Again, if there's a spark/hot metal somewhere, the electrolyte can ignite. In our tests, we had to puncture the cells themselves with a nail to get a fire. The nail shorts out the electrodes, massive amounts of current flow, something gets very hot and ignites the electrolyte, which then comes spewing out of the cells in a fiery jet. Very dramatic. In a way, the reason they are so dangerous is that they can store so much energy and release it rapidly. In other words, the same thing that make it a good battery make it dangerous if mishandled. Most failures come from battery pack manufacturers that skimp on protection circuits. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
freethefly 6 #6 February 12, 2007 https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/ I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 and just checked my battery pack. Luckily, I am not affected by this. The above link is to the Dell battery recall page and has a list of what is affected. My battery is not listed. Hope that is a good sign that the problem has been corrected."...And once you're gone, you can't come back When you're out of the blue and into the black." Neil Young Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
