Quality Engineering
I got an exploding battery! (Serial number ending in “U7SC.”) It didn’t explode, but it bowed the battery case out to the point that the mouse on my laptop thought it was pressed all the time. Two things that this is not: braggable. Both of them, actually, are “braggable.”
The only redeeming thing about the story is that Apple is shipping me a new battery. But it’s only redeeming in a “yeah, I stole your car, but at least I filled it up with premium before the police found it” sort of a way.
Anyway, I feel a certain bond of brotherhood with the other Dell and Viao and Powerbook users who got exploding batteries. It’s a good thing the exchange happened before DHS found out that I’ve carried dangerous explosives like this on to airplanes on multiple occasions.
December 18th, 2006 at 9:51 am
FYI, this is not actually an exploading battery problem. We had the same problem with my wife’s Macbook Pro, which did not have one of the “exploading battery” serial numbers. The laptop just ran hot and that caused the darn thing to expand and contort to the point where after you took it out you couldn’t put it back in. Nice that.
Apple replaced it, which is handy if I can convince my wife to sell it to some poor shmuck who doesn’t know any better.
December 18th, 2006 at 11:24 am
Yes, well I use the term “exploding” loosely. How about “crappy” instead?
So is it a battery construction issue? Odd that they would replace the battery and not the machine itself if it’s a heat issue and not something else. Also, it’s funny, but the thing didn’t ever seem to run hot to me. (i.e., I can use it on my lap comfortably.)
December 19th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
Hope it doesn’t happen to my MBP (well, actually Y!’s MBP). So far it’s been fine. I’m using smcFanControl to keep the minimum fan speed up so it doesn’t usually get that hot at idle and I can actually use it as a laptop.
Jill’s white Macbook just decides every once in a while to increase its fan speed to maximum and gets loud. Not had any problems with it though (although it gets very hot, so definitely can’t use it as a laptop).
December 20th, 2006 at 8:42 am
You can look up your serial numbers on the site linked to above to see if yours is one of the defective batteries.
December 27th, 2006 at 12:43 am
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