Exploding Macs are back
Image Credit: James Bayliss
Yes, you heard right. A good friend of mine, and part time contributor to Appletell, James Bayliss, is the latest victim of an exploding laptop. James wasn’t hurt or anything other than a small burn on his hand, but both his MacBook Pro and desk have seen better days.
James was sitting at his desk yesterday, reading Digg, when all of a sudden he heard a loud “POP”. Immediately after this pop, sparks and flames started shooting out from his MacBook Pro, lighting his desk on fire and giving him a slight burn as he tried to put out the flames. He finally got the fire out, unplugged his MacBook Pro and pulled out the battery and gave Apple Europe a call.
Image Credit: James Bayliss
Upon calling Apple, James was transferred through a half dozen departments until he reached someone who claimed to be someone quite high up with Apple Europe. James was asked a large amount of questions over the phone. They asked whether he had to call the fire department, if there was any major damage to his house, what color was the smoke, did the smoke make you sick, did you get hurt, etc. etc. Upon answering these questions, James was told he should be receiving a phone call the following day (Today, March 12, 2008) - which he has just told me he did not receive.
It’s very sad to see Apple fumbling on this one, and we hope James gets everything sorted out, and soon. He’s currently stuck using his dads Vista laptop. We’ll keep you updated on the situation as it happens. You can check out a interview that James did with Chris Pirillo yesterday following the event at Chris’ blog.
Update: James has gotten in contact with Apple who is sending him a new laptop, as soon as he returns his current one.
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Sounds like Umberto is a silly N1gger
on March 14, 2008 at 05:26 AM - LINKTypical Apple not looking after their customers after they buy their products.
on March 14, 2008 at 06:29 AM - LINKDid the computer have a battery that had been recalled?
on March 14, 2008 at 08:10 AM - LINKThis was not a battery problem. I would imagine that this was the components that handle the screen backlight, or something similar. The location appears to be the the back right edge of the bottom case. I haven’t seen inside the MBP enough to tell you what is at that location, but I would suspect that it is a group of capacitors.
on March 14, 2008 at 09:49 AM - LINKHe had to use VISTA! Oh the humanity!
on March 14, 2008 at 12:25 PM - LINKLOSERS!
Boo-hoo it’s so disappointing that the Church of Appletology behaved in such a corporate unsaintly manner! Don’t they screen their employees for their edginess and high moral standards?
How dare you blaspheme the great almighty Apple. This is obviously a Microsoft conspiracy. I work on Macs and the area of the fire is no where near a heat source. This is where the cupholder attaches.
I am so sorry to hear that he has to use his Dad’s Vista machine. I hope it does not cause him any permanent damage.
on March 14, 2008 at 02:04 PM - LINKJust two photos, no inside shots and suspicious looking burn marks. Not very convincing :-P
on March 15, 2008 at 02:50 AM - LINKIf he opened it up he’d likely void the warranty and then Apple would’ve said he did it.
on March 15, 2008 at 02:58 AM - LINKWater damage. Clearly.
on March 15, 2008 at 01:18 PM - LINKChris,
I’ve chatted with James and he explained to me there was no water damage. Plus, if you look at the MBP, it’s very hard to get water in that area without pouring it down there on purpose.
on March 15, 2008 at 05:41 PM - LINKMy MacbookPro went in for repair 4 weeks ago to replace faulty lid latches and a faulty key on the keybaord. I had a call to say it should be 2 days until it’s returned to the local store, the following day I had another apologetic call to say during the final “testing” stages the laptop “blew up"…
on March 17, 2008 at 12:38 PM - LINKI was sceptical and asked for more details, they technician said it made a bang/pop, hissed and then smoked with some small flames. When the techie opened the case the motherboard was fried in one area (he didn’t mention which area) but there was going to be a delay whilst waiting for a new main board.
Lucky for me I bought a Macbook Air the day I dropped the MBP off for repair so I’m not too bothered how long it takes to fix but I thought it co-incidental that what was descibed by my techician seems to have happened here too!
Same thing happened to mine. I just thought I was working it too hard....
on May 12, 2008 at 03:25 AM - LINKMacbooks are notorious for over-heating… that’s what happens when you have poor engineering (solid aluminum shells that reach nearly 60 degrees Celcius) and concentrate too much on style.
How many people can keep a Macbook on their lap for an hour… the Air had so many over heating problems they are now calling it an “electronic device” instead of tha laptop… because you can’t have it on your lap.
Sad.
on May 15, 2008 at 10:34 PM - LINKThere are utilities that you can download onto your mac that tell you how hot your laptop is and to adjust the fans rpm speed. I also keep my activity monitor up in the corner to make sure I don’t over run my laptop. The last thing I need is for my macbook pro to light up like a mortar shell.
You can find it here:
on June 25, 2008 at 03:24 PM - LINKhttp://www.lobotomo.com/products/FanControl/