Exploding Laptop Video

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 14 November 2006

Like a scene from Jackass II the guys at PC Pitstop decided to find out what happens when you force a lithium ion battery to self destruct. This is a must see video. Lithium Ion batteries have been making the news a lot recently due to a series of fires caused by malfunctioning batteries. Major notebook manufacturers were forced to recall nearly 10 million laptop computers sold with Sony batteries which had a manufacturing fault that made them more likely to cause these extremely dangerous fires. The potential for this kind of destruction is not restricted only to Sony-made lithium ion batteries. The danger is inherent in the chemicals used and any battery that suffers damage or a short circuit could potentially explode in the same way. With that in mind these guys "intentionally created conditions in which the Li-ON battery pack would explode" and then video tapped it for us. The notebook used was built up form spare parts and the battery used was not one of the recalled Sony batteries. The intention is to demonstrate that this could happen to any  lithium ion powered device which has  a faulty battery packs, faulty protection circuits, is exposed to excessive heat or to blunt force. Those with a morbid or safety interest in the ongoing saga of exploding laptop batteries really need to check out this video from PC Pitstop. Related news items Tiny Rugged UMPC WIth Vista -10/10/2007 HP Goes iPaq Mad -06/09/2007 Leather-Bound ThinkPad Has Its Own Nerd -06/09/2007 Semi-Rugged With Grunt -05/09/2007 Fujitsu LifeBook - 12.1 inch; 11 hours; 1.53kg -21/08/2007 Newer news items Crackberry Cold Turkey As Voda Goes Dark -14/03/2007 ACCC Warns On Phone Scams -13/03/2007 ASI Whitebook Gets Seagate Encrypted Drive -13/03/2007 Lenovo Recalls More Batteries -01/03/2007 Cisco Beefs Up Wireless LAN Security -18/02/2007 Older news items Check Point Plans Enterprise-Style Security For The Home -08/11/2006 Seagate To Encrypt Notebook Drives -30/10/2006 Lenovo Joins Dell, Apple In Sony Recall -03/10/2006 LAX Firecracker Had A Sony Battery -21/09/2006 Vendors Contemplate Formal Standards For Lithium Ion -21/09/2006 Tag This Now: