My laptop is smoking!!!

Hi...While I was working on my laptop earlier it got extremely hot, it then started to smell and then was smoking. My husband said to push the power button to turn it off but when I did so it made a cracking sound and then sparks came out the back, there is even a small burn mark on my table where the laptop was sitting! We unplugged the system and then my husband called technical support to see what could be done. The technician said that there was nothing he could do since it was an older system and it was out of contract. He also told my husband to wait a couple of hours and then plug it back in and try to turn it back on! Once my husband got off the phone with him and told me what the tech said I was outraged! I understand that it is not under contract but my system basically exploded while I was 2 inches from it, what if this happened while I was not home...it could have burned my house down! Anyway...I called hte tech support number again and got a differnet tech on the phone, he also proceeded to tell me there was nothign he could do, so I then asked to speak to a supervisor, I got a supervisor by the name of Andres (spelling) who not only could not do anything but was SO SO SO SO extrememly rude to me! He was laughing and said things like 'If you think it is such a safety issue then you should call 911, Toshiba is not responsible for it.' This just put me through the roof, I asked for a badge number or repID, anything to id him, but no, nothing like that, of course not because he knew he was out of line. He said that he would not trnasfer me to another supervisor even though there was more supervisors available, so I hung up an dcalled again. By this time I was so upset I was in tears, so the very nice technician trnasferred me to the supervisor line to see if anyone could help me...low in behold I got Andres AGAIN, he thought this was even funnier and began to laugh again. So I then called customer service who was once again very nice, she said that I would need to speak to customer relations but by that time they were already gone, she gave me a new case number..and get this! the supervisor even logged in his case that he told me i shoudl call 911! so...hopefully when I contact customer relations on monday i will have better luck. Anyway...the reason I wrote ALL of that is not JUST to complain but also see if anyone knew ANY kind of policy for safety hazards. I just can't believe that Toshiba is not going to take responsibilty for this. Thanks for any information you can give me!

 

How old is this laptop ?

Did you ever think to service it like you do for your car , dust could build in and cause over-heating which could lead to short circuit / smoke / fire .

This reminds me of one reality video i downloaded from edonkey showing an old laptop in a pc lab being plugged in , starting to send sparks , smoldering black smoke and then burst into flames - scaring the techs who immedietly unplugged it - you don't have to call tech to figure this out .

So the question is when did you buy it ? and when it was serviced last ? I suspect both answers would be long long ago .

 

The system is an older one, my grandfather purchased the system refurbished. The fans look fine, no dust....I didn't contact tech support to ask if I should unplug it, I called to see what would be done about it...The thing I can't believe about the entire situation is how the supervisor spoke to me, he apparently doesn't understand how much he effects how the company is represented. Maybe that's why everyone has a Dell [ ]

 

If it's not under warranty any longer, time to let it go and shop for a new one. Sorry that happened to you, it was probably a pretty scary experience.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com