Samsung laptop battery burns
Pillow-as-desk usage to blame?
A Samsung laptop's battery caught fire yesterday, setting light to the bed it had been left on, South Korean firefighters have revealed.
The P10 laptop overheated, causing the bedclothes to smoulder and burn. No one was hurt in the incident, Reuters reports, which took place in Yeonnam-dong, Mapo, South Korea.
Details are sketchy, but it appears the laptop was in use at the time. The owner - believed to be a 34-year-old woman - had been working on the computer for three-and-a-half hours, with the machine perched on a pillow.
Samsung told the newsagency it was still investigating the matter, but it's hard not to guess that the laptop overheated because the pillow blocked the computer's air vents.
Many laptops' fans suck air through vents in their cases' bases, pulling the cool air over key components and then venting hot air out through the rear or sides of the casing. If any of these are smothered, temperatures inside the case can rise rapidly, potentially affecting a machine's heat-sensitive lithium battery.
Last month, an LG laptop caught fire in a Seoul hotel, though independent investigators said the computer's battery had blown because it had been subjected to sudden and unexpected temperature and pressure increases.
COMMENTS
Re: Pillow Fire
"Surely i cannot be the only person that thinks the (probably cheap) pillow caught fire under the laptop and the following flame caused the NoteLapBookTop to go pop?"
I would hope that you were. The autoignition point of cotton is 407 °C.
Pillow Fire
Surely i cannot be the only person that thinks the (probably cheap) pillow caught fire under the laptop and the following flame caused the NoteLapBookTop to go pop?
Erm
Apposed to popular belief, the CPUs are no longer the *hottest* component of a laptop -- the chipsets nowdays get extremely hot, however, alot of economy laptops do not monitor chipset thermals and instead, focus on the CPU thermals when the CPU gets enough airflow, however, the chipset gets next to none because it's stuck on the underside of the unit which often case, is always covered. That's why on some laptops, the area above the touchpad gets extremely warm, that's not the CPU, that's the chipset getting no real air circulation, potentially overheating.,.
Until laptops can optimize the thermals with components not around the CPU or near any heatsinks with proper airflow, laptops should NOT be made any thinner like they are.
Sure, the components are designed to take the thermals, however, surfaces (including people) that laptops are placed on cannot. I've had laptops sitting on a thick wooden desk that when you put your hand on the underside of the desk, you can feel the bleed of the heat. This is unacceptable and laptops designs should be re-evaluated.
I use mine in bed all the time
I usually use my iBook in the evening while in or on a bed, especially when staying in hotels for work. It's really the most comfortable place in my opinion after a hard day of work, alone, with nothing on TV, and wifi almost everywhere these days. I see nothing wrong with this usage, maybe just with the porn.
Heat dissipation
Some heat is removed by circulating air, but a fair amount is conducted away through the base of the laptop. Solid materials conduct heat well; pillows and blankets do not, which is why mine can reach burn-causing temperatures if I use it full-speed in bed, but barely gets warm on top of my steel desk. Just put a good heatsink under it and you'll be safe.
