Dude, your Dell is on fire

Although we enjoy ogling mangled electronics as much as the next person, if you should ever find yourself at a conference with us and someone's laptop happens to burst into flames, we kindly request that you seek out a fire extinguisher before reaching for your cameraphone.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[adrian @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:31PM]

*reminds himself to bring a fire extinguisher with him when he carries his Dell Latitude around*

[John Iburg @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:38PM]

Dude, this is scary, imangine if this happend on a airplane? That would suck major ass. Dell really needs to look into this. Imangine the next person this happens to is using it on his lap? I smell 8 figures.

[Donald @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:38PM]

TOASTY~!

[koo @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:42PM]

Dell is obviously in links with terrorist organizations to smuggle small weapons of moderate destruction.

[idude135 @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:49PM]

Yet another reason not to purchase the fat, boring, cheap, and ugly computers Dell makes.

What an uninspiring brand.

[Constantine @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:55PM]

That reminds me the Mission Impossible.
Maybe the guy accidentally pressed the self destruction button!!!
He, he, he !!!!
Maybe the Dell must add a fire extinguisher in every package... :).

[Tull @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:56PM]

@ #7
You also forgot to mention the crap parts they put into their systems.

[beaulemite @ Jun 22nd 2006 7:56PM]

That's hot.

[yongsta @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:01PM]

Whoa...that is friggin' crazy!

[Sudi @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:08PM]

sad... alienware pwns... even VAIOs are having problems now with their lt's...

[bob @ Sep 11th 2008 11:46PM]

dude...alienware is owned by dell....

[bob @ Sep 11th 2008 11:50PM]

dude...alienware is owned by dell....

[atewart @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:20PM]

There is actually 2 pictures of this and if you examine the images - it looks like these picture could be photoshop.

If you see the second picture, you notice that the flame is out side the notebook plus none of the notebooks looks damage. Also with such explosion, you expect that the notebook would be blasted on to the floor.

[Spoonman @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:22PM]

Reason # 645,789 not to buy a Dell. I wonder how well the tech support call went on that one?

[DT @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:24PM]

@Atewart,
That's probably the most unconvincing debunking I've ever heard.

@Slacker,
Do you have any evidence of anything in the vicinity of a MB(P) melting? If so, share with the class.

[Ben @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:38PM]

@DT - Yes, that was a poor debunking. However his points are valid. The article quotes the submitter of the photos as saying the fire lasted at least five minutes. The two photos are clearly at different stages of this supposed fire, yet the scorch marks on the table are identical. Also, how likely is it that the table cloth survived with only the minor scorching pictured, with five minutes of flames and "multiple explosions?"

Also, look at the reactions of the bystanders, in the "explosion" photo. Yes, they are looking - but not with much concern evident. The gentleman on the right who is looking over his shoulder isn't even flinching away, yet he is clearly within feet of an "exploding" laptop.

I don't buy it. There may have been a fire, the scorch marks look fairly realistic. But the description & two photos (particularily the more dramatic one) do not fit together.

[John Russell @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:44PM]

Almost like when that one iBook caught fire
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/06/01/ibook-battery-catches-fire/

[Judah @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:46PM]

Dudes, we got the whole story from the conference today -- it was using an aftermarket battery which exceeded the cell rating and overheated, plus the fan was broken so the computer was one big hot plate

[SIP YEK NOD @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:48PM]

i take it none of you have ever had a lithium ion battery rupture on you. if it gets too hot and it is a cheap battery, the battery will actually start to seperate. when lithium hits air, it produces what you see in the pictures there

not pretty, and very not fun.

[bliss @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:54PM]

any ideas what caused it?

[Michael L. Wilkerson @ Jun 22nd 2006 8:59PM]

Do we really know that it was Dell? And I'm not that big a fan, just that fair is fair.

[someguy @ Jun 22nd 2006 9:21PM]

Is it really a Dell? You can't tell from the picture so I guess only the people who were there could tell you for sure. I know the title says Dell but it also sounds much cooler than "Dude, your mac is on fire" so I was just wondering if the word Dell was used just because it makes a cool title for a burning computer.

[Hannah @ Jun 22nd 2006 9:29PM]

@SIP YEK NOD

It'd fun to expose soft metals to oxygen in science class (ever dropped a wad of pure sodium in water?), but it's not so fun in your computer.

[thegrizzle @ Jun 22nd 2006 9:39PM]

Reason number 34,627 you shouldn't overclock your laptop:-)

[Devron @ Jun 22nd 2006 9:44PM]

Not to make excuses for Dell (I got a Mac Book Pro....like I can talk about another laptop getting hot!)...but look at that green felt heat conducting tablecloth. How long was it sitting on that with no room for air? And after sitting in a laptop bag.....powered on for hours with no ventilation? Not saying that it's the owner's fault, but there are so many laptops that people don't treat them with care.

[lolersticks @ Jun 22nd 2006 10:13PM]

li-ion batteries tend to explode when their insides are exposed to air...

[Guruboy @ Jun 22nd 2006 10:34PM]

Is no one getting tired of the anti-Dell crap? Give it a rest people, Dells are the best value on the market for consumer PCs next to just buying the parts and building it yourself. Btw, Dell aquired Alienware a while back, they use the same policies in the hardware when building Alienwares as they do with building a Dell.

[RandomPerson @ Jun 22nd 2006 10:54PM]

@Guruboy

Does that change the fact that Dells use proprietary parts and low wattage power supplies? Does that change their 4.36/10 resellerrating? No. Consumer Dells are NOT built to last.

[Paul @ Jun 22nd 2006 10:57PM]

If you are going to buy a laptop, dell is the way I would recomend you go, they have so many rebate offers you can get a great deal from them. I have yet to see a convincing arguement against them besides people just saying, "Dell Suxorz!!"

I believe this is real, I have seen several videos of over charged lithium batteries, its crazy. and if you ask me, those people are definately flinching away from the fire.

As for the scorch marks, I think that they would probably be caused by the initial explosion so they would stay the same in all of the pictures.

[E4 @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:05PM]

How on Earth can you possibly determine this was a Dell laptop? It almost looks like a PowerBook to me, but for the life of me, I can't tell for sure.

Anyone else notice the tangle of wires on the tables?

[Kent @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:25PM]

i have had my dell for 8 years no problems....yet.

[Asrugan @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:33PM]

I love they guy who said Alienware owns, Dell sucks.... wonder if he knows Dell bought them............

[jorellh @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:46PM]

This could make the phrase "Dude you're getting a Dell" a threat of arson.

[Nick @ Jun 22nd 2006 11:56PM]

I think this is why the industry is calling these bad boys "notebook" computers now. Or maybe the battery was just defective.

And what about this happening on an airplane? At least planes are freezing cold and most people use the tray - but it seems like it could cause some problems - especially if it happens over mid-ocean. It would be a really uncomfortable hour, or two, before they could land the plane to fully air out the cabin.

(not like I actually know anything about how the ventilation system on an aircraft works)

[glv73ster @ Jun 23rd 2006 12:04AM]

Wow more American made technology bites the dust eh?
Awww, what a pity!!! HEHEHE.
Burn mofo! Burn. heha

[Marian @ Jun 23rd 2006 1:02AM]

It's a dell (TM)

[Brian James @ Jun 23rd 2006 1:39AM]

The only possible explanation for this, if it is the laptop that caused that burst, is the chemicals in the battery.

Sorry, but nothing in your PC is explosive enough to create that kind of reaction... except the chemicals in an improperly manufactured battery.

Dell is most likely hardly to blame... this is something I'd expect from the $10 batteries on eBay. Chinese sweatshop manufacturing at it's finest.

[SuperFly @ Jun 23rd 2006 4:19AM]

What the heck, this looks like a conference room from circa 1973 I mean check the suited waiter on the left and the revolting zig zag wallpaper in the room. This has to be a wind up photoshop jobbie I'm tellin' ya! The fire is probably just someone's fondue set catching fire!!

[Trent Arms @ Jun 23rd 2006 4:56AM]

Damn, can you people just not read!?

"it was using an aftermarket battery which exceeded the cell rating and overheated, plus the fan was broken so the computer was one big hot plate"

@Paul: Dammmit! Post right before yours! "...Dells use proprietary parts and low wattage power supplies...." And unless their acquisition of Alienware suddenly enabled their grunt workers able to put a computer together better under the same conditions and in the same facilities as before with the same parts as before...forget that train of thought: they're still shoddy pieces of workmanship, just like last week.

[Shoe @ Jun 23rd 2006 5:12AM]

That actually happened to a friend of mine. Her brand new dell laptop caught fire and melted.

[Perrey Z. @ Jun 23rd 2006 7:48AM]

@ ted 7:59PM Jun 22nd: DELL AND MAC SUCKS GET A VAIO OR HP!

Damn! what a riot. you guys make me laugh out loud with your comments and i'm pretending to be quietly doing my work. Is this a Kodak Momentor what? i smell a crispy class action lawsuit.

While the whole incident is dangerous and i'm sure scare the bejesus of of anyone next to that thing there's not a direct hyperlink to the actual news article that indicates it's a Dell.

It could be a Mac with a defective battery pack. Although the Chinese love cheapos and statistics show 6-out-of-10-desktops and laptops sold in China are Dell so i guess it's a Dell our should i say a D'Hell.

[Craig @ Jun 23rd 2006 8:13AM]

Do people think a MacBook could do this as well? I'm planning on getting one, and don't want to phone up Apple saying my new laptop just exploded.

[Bean @ Jun 23rd 2006 9:27AM]

The gentlemen in the photo who don't seem to be reacting properly to the huge fire appear to be attempting to get the chairs away from the fire.

[maff @ Jun 23rd 2006 10:47AM]

I don't believe it's real.

[Obbie Z @ Jun 23rd 2006 10:53AM]

I'm surprised nobody's said it yet....:

The Dell from Hell

[Brett @ Jun 23rd 2006 12:08PM]

Okay honestly... the guy has time to take his keitai photo but the one guy doesn't have time to move away from the burning computer... wtf?? Can somebody say 'photoshop'?

[Guruboy @ Jun 23rd 2006 12:31PM]

Man! what do you guys DO to your Dells, huh? Apparently everyone here has had theirs blow up, or has had a CS rep with a bad accent, or has had general hardware problems. I have 2 Dells, one 4 years old and one 2 years old, and they've never failed me. The couple times I've called CS, I got guys with Indian accents, but they knew what they were doing. The only maintenence I've done on my Dell is clean it. All the horror stories you here are either lies, someone who didn't treat their computer properly, or the one in a million chance that something actually went wrong (as with all computers). Open up a Dell and look inside, the thing works, and for a long time.

These photos are very likely fake. The picture is in mid-explosion...who is that fast with a camera phone? The people aren't hardly having a reaction, they're just looking at it. The lighting that the fake explosion makes on the man to the right of it does not fit in the scene one bit. Also look at the illumination of the chair almost blocked by the explosion, does that look real to you?

[Tracy L @ Jun 23rd 2006 1:36PM]

Guruboy wrote:
===============
All the horror stories you here are either lies, someone who didn't treat their computer properly, or the one in a million chance that something actually went wrong (as with all computers).
==========
So I've got about 2200 leased Dells here at work. Over the past 2 years we have had at least 1 hard drive failure PER WEEK. In addition to that Dell just came in and did a warranty motherboard replacement due to bad capacitors on close to half of them. That puts me around 55% chance of failure in 2 years. If I graph that linearly (and I admit not the best method when dealing with percentages) that gives me...

A "one in a million chance" that the Dell on my desk will have a hardware failure in the next 3 hours and 11 minutes!

How did you arrive at your "one in a million" statistic?

[yehweh @ Jun 23rd 2006 4:36PM]

This message will self distruct in 3 ... 2 ... 1... KABOOM!

[Steve @ Jun 23rd 2006 6:42PM]

Gotta agree with Tracy L here, as I too am burdened with having to support Dell equipment as part of my job. Figure 50 laptops and over a hundred assorted desktops plus a server room of around 30 machines. In the last six months I've had at least five laptops in need of replacment motherboards, another three with screen failures, one DOA (not obviously abused in transit), four desktops all in need of repair under warranty and several server issues, usually with power supplies. Funny thing is, all these issues occured on hardware less than two years old. The stuff that dates back to Noah (i.e. around 1999 / 2000) keeps on grinding away no matter what gets thrown at them, it's just the modern kit that's utterly awful. And as for Dell tech support, the less said the better. Put it this way, when I call to report a blow power supply that let all the magic smoke out while I was in the frickin' room I do NOT expect the monkey on the phone to go through the "is it plugged in, is the cable working, have you checked everything is plugged in properly" script.

All of the above is why we're currently shopping around for another supplier. Heck, at this point I'd almost be willing to shift to building them ourselves (and getting the cheapest possible laptops), at least that way we can just swap out the bits that blow up there and then.