More Burning Laptops - Apple to Be Sued $15,000 for Ruining Carpet?

Recently in Japan a Dell notebook was captured in pictures going up in flames. But it seems Dell isn't the only company experiencing flaming laptop woes. According to reports, a family in Iowa may sue Apple for a laptop that melted the carpet and then erupted into flames upon being thrown outside this past April.

According to a report in the Toronto Globe and Mail, this past April the Brown family in Solon, Iowa hadlocatedto the top floor of their house whenan oddpopping noise and smell of smoke came from the first floor.The mother went down to find their son'sChristmas presentApple laptop smoking and melting its way through the carpet.Their son Nickwas in the basement playing his XBox and had left the laptop unattended and sitting on the living room carpet on the first floor. The laptop was movedoutside and put on the front path where it:

"erupted in a ball of flames...the computer flared up several times on the flagstone walkway."

The carpet the Mac melted through will cost $15,000 to replace and the Brown family is thinking about suing Apple for these damages. Furthermore, the mother claims her son has become wary of computers and

"a charred spot on the family walkway still reminds the Browns of that (fiery) April evening".

So why not sue for mental and emotional damages hey? It's actually pretty lucky the laptop was moved in time otherwise it might have been the house that was toast and not just the carpet and walkway.

The moral of the story is, these laptop fire incidents don't occur often, but there are 43 reports since 2001 of such things happening in the U.S so be aware. If a laptop is in your lap and starts feeling really hot, don't put a pillow on your lap to protect from heat (especially if you're on a plane). This will just aggravate the situation. The reason for the firesis a malfunctioning battery combined with a notebook that gets way too hot. If the battery membrane gets melted then what ensues can be dangerous, indeed fire can occur.

Keeping a laptop well ventilated is certainly the key to preventing these things, in the Apple incident above the laptop was on a carpet which would certainly cause issues. And in the case of the Dell exploding at a conference in Osaka Japan it appears as if the notebook was on a felt table that could have blocked ventilation on the bottom.

there were no pictures taken of the exploding Mac laptop the Brown family experienced in Iowa, but it likely looked the same as the Dell notebook that exploded last month at a conference in Osaka, Japan

The bottom line is this is a very rare thing, but we can only hope it never ever happens on a plane while airborne, manufacturers should take any of these reports very seriously and do as much investigation as possible to figure out what conditions caused them to occur.

We recommend reading our notebook cooling guide as one way of combatting this issue (even though it shouldn't be an issue).

 

wow thats nuts

 

Ha, a carpet worth 15k I guess the doctors are wrong when they say apples are good for your health

 

Don't forget the Van Gogh.

 

actually they wouldnt have to cover it. in the manuel it says not to obstruct and vents and to put on a flat hard surface. you are not supposed to keep these machines on beds blankets or carpets. if you do its your own fault.

 

Leaving your laptop turned on+having the vents blocked=Not a good idea.
Tim

 

Try to replace even 5 year old carpet in one room of your house, and have it match. You end up having to replace it all.

 

Last I checked, Apple laptops didn't have bottom vents, so placing it on a carpet should not be blocking the vents.

 

Blasphemy…. Apple laptop in flames..... off with his head ...

abaxter.. I think its the right time for you to take a life insurance.... the Apple mafia won't like what you have revealed.

 

Apple has already had to recall 120,000 batteries due to similar occurrences. Frankly, those that sue are going to have a case here. Although the manual does explain some dangers, there is no excuse for a laptop to explode while in a flat position. That's selling inherently dangerous products and expecting a vague warning in a manual is going to protect your company's liability when a laptop explodes on one of your customer's laps or homes.

 

My god, I doubt even IF you blocked the vents up it would not burst into flames. EVERY laptop I know of just shuts down when it reaches a certain temp. that sounds like a little more than "blocking the vents".

 

Correct, but the bottom does act as a heat sink. And like the article said, it happens when a bad battery is coupled with a hot laptop.

 

Exactly. The engineers who designed the laptop should be fired. I sense that the battery is the culprit here, but if it is the CPU, then the worst thing that should happen is have the computer shut down by itself, not explode. That would be too dangerous if it did.

 

im sure that every electronic device has atleast on person who has had seroius problems with there machine, so by your theory there wouldent be a lot of engineers with jobs.

 

Being an engineer, I take offense at that

An engineer would say to the big managers "with the battery power you wanted, size you wanted, cpu power you wanted, fan noise you wanted - this is the best we could do, but we dont think its safe - please let us make a bigger laptop for better cooling"

Managers will say "aaah but but macbook fans only want razer thin laptops - they dont care about heat - we will go ahead with current design".

So dont blame the engineers.
This is exactly what happened in the challenger disaster. Engineers said not to lauch the shuttle.
Managers did.

 

Straight out of a Dilbert strip...

 

I know you can buy an apple accident warrantys. But perhaps they should start to offer fire insurance?

 

If this family wanted money, they should've asked Apple nicely before going to the press. Apple would pay them the 15 grand and then some to avoid negative publicity. And, well, suing Apple with its army of lawyers for 15 g's is a sure-fire way to put some money into a bottomless well of lawyers and court fees, with all the motions Apple would bring and all. Unless, of course, Apple offers to settle, once again to avoid negative publicity.

They should've just posted the pictures somewhere on the Internet to generate some buzz, like the (first) guy with the melted MagSafe did. Apple called him up and said, ey why don't ya take down those photos and we'll send you a nice new laptop. End of story.

Malia