Generic laptop batteries risks???

So i have a Generic battery on my Vostro 1700, it's a 9 Cell identifying itself as a Samsung Battery. I was on a flight from Chicago to Reno and suddenly while watching a movie, the laptop turned off... my battery was over 50% how could this be, all the sudden the battery started to get ugly and produce extreme heat and deform itself. with the help of a flight attendant we managed to keep it under control and avoid a disaster. I continued to use my CF-19 the remainder of my flight.(without exploding)

So what happened??? Upon getting to where i was going, i powered back up the 1700 with the battery, it reported about where the charge left off. in under 5 minute it dropped from 60% to about 2 % and died. I have little faith in Generic batteries.

Even my Clevo D901C with both GPU's an it's 12 Cell 99Whr battery didn't do this to me or overheat.

Avoid Generics??? Do aircraft being under less atmosphere pressure and different temps produce different effects on Li-on batteries?

 

The batteries essentially internally short out. This can happen with LiIon tech batteries that are essentially either drained , or charged to fast and/or charged too little or too much. This is why a specific matching charger is used for a battery and battery for a device. A cheaply made Chinese pack will probably not be matched up properly or the celss may be crap, or the pack just unbalanced (mismatched cells etc.).

 

I had a good chuckle at the topic title next to your username. I'd say one risk is experiencing some flame haze. You're lucky the incident on the plane ended well.


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Short version: avoid generic batteries, period.

The manufacturer's battery has been tested and designed to work within the parameters of the system you bought it with - from battery only use aspects to charging while notebook is not used and while it is (at any (stock) intensity). Generic batteries have one goal: low cost.

The cost of the portable power source is very small vs. the cost of the rest of the system; don't skimp on it if you value your system and your safety and those around you.

Buy the Dell provided battery your notebook needs and count yourself and the rest of the passengers lucky that we didn't need to read about you in the news.

 

Thanks for the discussion everyone. The battery wasn't my purchase, I was given the laptop with this battery, last second I figured I could watch movies on a super nice 1920x1200 LG Phillips screen vs my toughbooks 1024x768 screen. Apperantly I wasn't fully aware it had a generic junk battery. I plan on buying a few OEM batteries

I question still unanswered, do conditions aboard the aircraft effect battery charecteristics during operation? I never had this issue on the ground, just the air.

 

Quite possibly, they do. But the original manufacturer should/would be much more diligent than any third party for making certain that the notebook worked safely and reliably in all possible user scenarios.

As for the specific effects high altitude conditions have, I can't say off hand. But it is safe to assume that aspects such as boiling point, etc. are affected unfavorably.

Take care.


P.S. This is one more thing to check for when buying used/refurbished battery operated equipment.

 

When you are given a laptop over buying one, you tend to not care as much about silly things. My Vostro was actually an Inspiron that was converted by myself since it had a ton of damage

 

Except when those 'silly things' could get you and the passengers you're flying with killed.

Maybe I should amend my post above with 'given' too then?

 

So we should find every terrorist in the world and give them devices for free with exploding batteries, sounds like a plan.

 

Don't quite know how to interpret this post???

Is something I said being misinterpreted, or, is this a stab at humor?

 

A stab, or should I say an idea, late night.

 

Sounds like an easy way to take down a plane... We are all awful people. Yeah I was saying I would have never thought of such a scenario ahead of time. Now I know. I thought "oh cool, a laptop that does things..." And nothing more. You don't count on your laptop to explode. What is this a JJ Abrams movie?

 

I just wish to take down the two spherical thingies of the monsters at large.

 

Thanks for sharing the experience. Never buy cheap unbranded batteries


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I never want this to happen to me. After the battery had deformed, I would have asked someone to get rid of it for me. And I definitely would not have plugged it back in.

I'm glad to hear that nothing more than that happened to it.

 

Once they deform the internal short has already happened. Time for it to go, literally.

 

I have the battery still because they had to make an FAA report and I may need to mail them the battery.

Im not in trouble according to them. They said it's something that could happen to any off the unsuspecting. Ordered 3 OEM Dell batteries for my 1700

 

Who should be in trouble is these fly by night people putting together unsafe batteries.

 

the internals look to be SDI(Samsung) made parts with no name cells, just GOB18650 printed onto them, the board looks to be a genuine board pulled from another pack.

Gotta love the No UL Certification.

 

If I remeber correctly UL certification is expensive. Even at that LiIon's can and will fail, just a fact of life.