Sony gets theirs: flaming Vaio brings the firefighters

Exploding Dell laptops get all the press, but that doesn't mean other honest, hardworking laptops can't get their 15-minutes of fame if they play their pyrotechnics right. And who better than Sony to produce an exploding Vaio featuring one of their very own infamous power cells? Today's story comes from Shawnee, Kansas where firefighters were called after the Vaio burst into flames twice. The first incident, which happened while the computer was idly charging, was quickly snuffed by its owner's fire extinguisher, but after the laptop burst into flames a second time a few minutes later, the fire department was called in. By the time the firefighters arrived they found the persistent Vaio on the driveway out front, fully contained by the fire extinguisher and its soul already ascending up to laptop heaven. So what's it going to be Dell, are you going to sit back and let Sony beat you at your own game, or do you have a triple explosion planned to take back the crown?

[Thanks, Jason Taylor]

[Raider @ Aug 23rd 2006 9:42PM]

triple explosion to take back the crown... lmao

[Pat Furrie @ Aug 23rd 2006 9:56PM]

That's "15 minutes of *flame*" ....

[Nick Johnson @ Aug 23rd 2006 9:59PM]

and i thought the Dells were funny... HA!

[Jon @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:03PM]

"and i thought the Dells were funny... HA!"

Well, Dell's wouldn't be exploding if they didn't use a SONY battery.

[Kenno @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:09PM]

Yeah, and there goes the hair on my thighs! At first it was soothing, then, well, then, like ouchy, okay? This one's going straight to YouTube!

[spil @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:12PM]

M$ boxes copy Apple's even more than I thought!!! First, that iBook exploded, now Dell is coping, now Sony is getting in on some of that sweet, sweet exploding action. I think this exploded because I heard that Sony Viao laptops were starting to use Sony batteries, which is HIGHLY unorthodox in my opinion.

[dunk @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:13PM]

weren't the sony laptops using dell batteries?

[Bobby @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:18PM]

"i heard someone dropped a PSP on a pillow and it burst into flames and set two houses on fire"

[Sean Glickman @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:20PM]

i have that laptop, its like 9 years old

[RP @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:21PM]

that model looks old as hell. i'd expect to be on fire by now :D

[Jack Harrison @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:22PM]

It really wasn't Dells screw up at all I think since it Sony's batteries in their laptops I thought. I just hope my PS3 doesn't burn the house down.

[ken52787 @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:25PM]

I too have that old Sony VIAO laptop. I gave it to my little sister when I got a newer laptop. She leaves it on constantly.

... and come to think about it, it has a really flaky battery.

/me worries a bit

[Philip Spicer @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:34PM]

The amount of bad press about Sony lately is just amazing. Maybe they should look into their quality control. Or they could continue to try and screw the customer.

[Torontoguy @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:35PM]

It is very hard to see but doesn't the A/C adapter say "Sanyo"?

[WilliamBlake @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:35PM]

A matter of OSes !!!!! It's clear, can't anybody realise about it ????

Laptops explode not because of batteries, but OSes !!!!

different brands, same OS !!! M$ windblows !!!!

even those "legendary" iBooks and a recent mac 17 incher explosion were caused after hard emulation of windows through Parallels and VirtualPC.

And you'll say, what the f**ck !!! Most laptops were turned off in the time of explosion.. YES !!!! Sure, but sure you've heard about the memory effect that plagues energy cell technology.

It is clear, machine running OS X, machine that last for long, doesn't stress itself, gets better with every new revision of OS X. OS X = stability

Machine runnning windows, slower with every patch, revision, service pack or whatever M$ hangs on the net, even the systems get so angry that can explode hours after being turned off. Windows = risk, danger, male castration risk without warning...

This should be the definitive step to OS X my friends.

[Clayton Ashley @ Aug 23rd 2006 10:39PM]

Shawnee is a county in Kansas, not a city BTW. Oh well, finally something happens im my part of the woods!

[Moosh @ Aug 23rd 2006 11:29PM]

I think it's important to note that the aforementioned laptop is four years old... decaying parts or poor upgrades could also be a cause of the explosion, in addition to a replacement A/C adapter (a common part to break, and sometimes replaced by a third party).

If it was a brand-new Vaio, I'd have cause for concern, since one's on my lap right now. However, I believe that the rare four-year-old-computer-explosion is not enough to shiver me timbers.

[Puff Daddy @ Aug 23rd 2006 11:31PM]

William Blake,

Lay off the weed and/or hallucinogens, it's really warping your mind. It's not the OS but rather the manufacturer of the battery, Sony.

Puff Puff

[Jon @ Aug 23rd 2006 11:33PM]

HAhahaha. Next to the Engadget logo is an ad that says:

"Commercial Contest sponsored by VAIO"

Very fitting for the article.

[Qyiet @ Aug 23rd 2006 11:38PM]

To quote slashdot ascii for you homer

Joke-> [0]
0
You -> /|
/

[Kev50027 @ Aug 24th 2006 12:03AM]

I bet the guy did it because he wanted a new laptop.

[Austin @ Aug 24th 2006 12:15AM]

the ultimate motivation for winning the engadget commercial viao contest. i'm totally going to laugh when the winner's new computer catches fire.

[Michael @ Aug 24th 2006 12:52AM]

I like what the Japanese said just like week.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2004629,00.asp

Fujitsu Ltd. and other Japanese computer makers said on Thursday that no recall of batteries made by Sony Corp. was necessary as their computers were designed to avoid overheating.

"We have determined that there is no possibility that any battery trouble could cause smoking or fire in our notebook computers," said a Fujitsu spokesman. "Most Japanese makers don't allow high voltage to flow from their AC adapters to the computer battery, out of safety concerns."

[Alex @ Aug 24th 2006 1:02AM]

If you're smart enough to post a comment here you should know enough about computers that you wouldn't really believe WilliamBlake meant what he said... and he wouldn't really mean what he said in that comment either.

On topic: sucks for the dude who had this laptop. But hey, at least it looks like it lasted for quite a while. My Macbook Pro is making weird noise right now as I'm typing... Ever since I read about the exploding laptops, every morning I wake up I thank God that mine is still up and running.

[Perrey Z. @ Aug 24th 2006 1:03AM]

Oh Sh*t! this is scary. I have a 11-month VAIO and since Engadget reported the reason Dell Notebooks are blowing up is due to their Sony battery packs i have contacted Sony twice about my VAIO notebook and the "what if" but they informed me that Dell's problem is a totally isolated incident and that i should not worry about it. Well after this, I'm even more worry and i won't take it lightly if my property is damage due to their stupid battery packs. Although this is not taken seriously i appreciate Engadget for keeping all of us up to date.

[boden @ Aug 24th 2006 2:38AM]

Pretty soon you won't be considered cool unless your laptop is on fire. There'll be whole libraries full of people using flaming computers.

[Jim @ Aug 24th 2006 4:41AM]

How do you tell if a sony vaio is on fire or not? I guess it must be some status LED somewhere as the heat and smoke are no different to having a running vaio on your lap if my memory serves me right.

[Alex C @ Aug 24th 2006 4:51AM]

Holy crap i have one of those laptops!

[Richard @ Aug 24th 2006 5:48AM]

Moosh is right: this VAIO is about 4 years old, unless the owner bought a new battery.

[Frosty22 @ Aug 24th 2006 9:17AM]

Hey, I live in Shawnee Kansas! Ahh... good times. Good times.

[noobs @ Aug 24th 2006 9:44AM]

i mean does it matter that the laptop battery is 4 years old?

I see people with laptops that are older than time and their batteries don't spontaeously combust.

sony's build quality has always been questionable. they build a nice looking product but their quality control has always been lagging behind other manufactuers.

[Jeff @ Aug 24th 2006 9:53AM]

I feel so left out. I've had a Dell notebook for years now, and two Sony Vaios for years before. None of them ever caught fire. =( Maybe I'm doing something wrong...

[Korpil @ Aug 24th 2006 9:55AM]

other honest, hardworking laptops can't get their 15-minutes of fame

As long as it's not 15-minutes of FLAME!

[Robert Aitchison @ Aug 24th 2006 11:31AM]

This kind of reminds me of the Ford Explorer/Firestone fiasco from a few years ago.

In that case the faulures were almost completely limited to the combination of the Firestone tires on Ford Explorers, other tires on the Explorer as well as the Firestones on other Trucks & SUVs didn't have the same problems.

In that case Ford was able to shift pretty much all the blame on Firestone, in this case it looks like Dell is getting the blame even if the problem isn't limited to Dell.

[JonMagic @ Aug 24th 2006 12:57PM]

It seems to me like this laptop fire thing started not that long ago (1 month, or 2?) and the growth of exploding laptops is almost exponential! I bet they can all be traced back to the same place, manufactured around the same time period, maybe even from the same bad batch (poor QA on the manufacturers part)...

[Ketsuke @ Aug 24th 2006 1:30PM]

Oh noes... I have a three year-old VAIO. And it is continously on... I guess it is time to get some fire insurance... (funny, I have a POS Gateway, Solo 1150 running Ubuntu, and it does not get that hot....

[CSD @ Aug 24th 2006 1:41PM]

im loving this so much

[WilliamBlake @ Aug 24th 2006 4:33PM]

again, a matter of OSes:

Homer, Puff Daddy, better watch out your pants !!! You're probably going into fire at any moment !!!!

Obviously you also got a problem of OSes as sense of humor is not in your basic I/O system !!!!!

I think that your brain enters in a Windows Blue Screen of Death Mode when it's about employing sense of humor to overcome a sad situation.

maybe that's because I had a smiling face in my mac in 1984 while you played the:

BIOS amitrend 0.01

Initiating Hercules Graphic Mode ......
Testing RAM... 128 Kb found
Checking for FLOPPY Disk 5 1/4
.
.
.
Starting autoexec..bat
.
Hoping for more memory sometimes somewhere...
.
No mouse detected.... but, for what a mouse ?
.
.
.
A>_Joshua, wanna play chess ?
PeeCee> Chess, what are you talk.. STACK OVERFLOW - PEEEEP !!!!!



BIOS amitrend 0.01

Initiating Hercules Graphic Mode ......
Testing RAM... 128 Kb found
Checking for FLOPPY Disk 5 1/4
.
.
.
Starting autoexec..bat
.
Hoping for more memory sometimes somewhere...
.
No mouse detected.... but, for what a mouse ?
.
.
.
A>DIR_
PeeCee> Can your repe.. STACK OVERFLOW - PEEEEP !!


again and again...

[All Your Lost Socks @ Aug 24th 2006 6:44PM]

WilliamBlake, there are so many awesome Engrish statements in what you just posted. Some day, I will put them on T-Shirts. To quote:

"Hoping for more memory sometimes somewhere..."

"No mouse detected.... but, for what a mouse ?"

And my favourite: "better watch out your pants !!!"

:)

I'll admit, I still use my Mac Classic II for word processing now and again. It's the most stable thing I've ever worked on.

Right now I have a black Macbook that I love, but it has the crackling power brick problem. I'm more worried that the plug will catch fire than the laptop itself...

[WilliamBlake @ Aug 24th 2006 7:23PM]

Sorry All Your Lost Socks,

what's the "crackling power brick problem" about ?

I'd love to buy one of this T-shirts.

I'm no witness of this, but someone told me that burning Macs smell better that Dell ones !!! i think Steve jobs is in everything in the manufacturing process !!!

[Bithead @ Aug 27th 2006 6:28AM]

I think they should have a sign on these batteries...

"Front Toward Enemy"

[Steve in NC @ Aug 27th 2006 3:17PM]

I own the Sony VGN FS724/W laptop and must admit I had my concerns after seeing the picture of this VAIO on my local TV station.
I contacted Sony, but was given a generic response, much like the one posted by PerreyZ. We back-and-forthed email for quite a while with the "what-ifs", and I even told them about the burned out laptop with the clearly visible VAIO logo I had seen on my local news (and eventually here at Engadget). They told me they don't take into consideration any reports from non-Sony websites.
So I politely wrote back and asked them if they planned to compensate me for my notebook if it catches fire, and be sure to compensate for more than just the computer, as there are things I cannot replace on it (yes, I have done backup).
I was then referred to contact customer service at their 888 number, lol. I guess "Eric" at Sony had enough of me.
I did write back with a copy of the picture in the email and a link to the article. Good luck to me on them even looking at it. Not impressed by Sony's attention to my concern.
I've since written my local TV station about the situation and how I was just dismissed by Sony with what I consider a legitimate concern.

[Steve in NC @ Aug 27th 2006 3:23PM]

Sorry....that's VGN FS742/W

Steve in NC

[Howard Stringer @ Sep 2nd 2006 12:48AM]

Where is the Sony recall of Sony batteries?

[Angel @ Sep 7th 2006 12:39PM]

Oh boy. I have a Sony VAIO that's about three years old. I'm scared...