back to article LG says laptop batteries safe despite 'billion to one' blast

LG Electronics will not recall a laptop battery of the model involved in the incineration of one of its notebooks last month. It said that independent testing laid the blame for the blaze elsewhere. On 9 January, a Korean journalist’s LG laptop burst into flames at the Bestian Medical Center in southern Seoul. The owner …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    let me see...

    Fault in battery causes it to heat up, causing expansion of internal components, a pressure build up and kabbbbooommmm.....Jihad !

  2. Kurt Guntheroth
    Unhappy

    unusual temp and pressure

    I understand the irony with which this article is written, but I still gotta ask. What unusual temperature and pressure is a laptop exposed to in a terrestrial enviornment? Did they accidentally autoclave the laptop? Did the reporter take it into a hyperbaric chamber? Is Seoul's legendary winter unusually warm this year?

    This *might* be a reasonable explanation if, say, the laptop was left sitting on a radiator. But it sounds so bogus that I can't believe the vultures didn't sink their talons deep into this story and carry it off to their nest to be ripped slowly apart.

    Sick 'em boys!

  3. Eddie Edwards
    Alien

    Ogilvy the Astronomer assured me we were in no danger

    "The chances of a battery exploding are about a billion to one, he said."

    But still they explode.

  4. Edward Rose

    LAPtops...

    I wonder how many people leave these exploding devices in deep pile rugs (erm, on) resulting in no airflow and no means for the heat to leave.

    The unit WILL produce heat, and it does need good ventilation, at least with a laptop class devices. People don't ever seem to respect this though.

    No icon: Because I wanted a bomb.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    RE: LAPtops

    I wanted a bomb and all I got was this lousy laptop...

  6. James Bryant

    billion to one

    how do they figure that one out, especially as given enough time, the chances of anything happening approach one to one. perhaps my battery has a billion to one chance of exploding in the next 5 seconds.

  7. Matt Bucknall

    So less...

    than the chance of anything coming from Mars then.

  8. Ru

    It's a perfectly good reason

    Its a bit like the leading cause of death being a lack of breathing or pulse.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    chance

    It's a funny world. Every week Camelot tells the population "it could be you!" And it could. but the chances are ~1 in 14 million. However every week or so somebody wins the lottery.

    But LG tells the population "the chances are 1 in a billion". And they are, assuming they didn't lie about the number. They don't say "it could be you".

    Eddie Edwards is dead right. The chances of *my* LG battery exploding might be 1 in a billion. But the chances of *an* LG battery exploding somewhere must be presumed to be much higher.

    LG are playing on poor understanding of probability to make people think "I am safe" instead of thinking "shit, which poor sucker's next?!"

    I guess we'll wait for the next explosion and see what they do. It'll cost them a lot less to take that approach anyway, they'll only need to pay out a relatively small amount to cover someone's loss of limbs, etc. So that's okay.

  10. Tom

    unusual temp and pressure

    That's not the cause, they might as well say the laptop failed due to unusual flame and smoke.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    A billion to one?

    Have a billion laptop batteries actually been produced in the history of the computer? Is there something LG isn't telling us about its inventories? Has it got a big secret present for the OLPC project? Did it explosion-test 950 million other batteries (their remains in a landfill near Seoul somewhere)?

    F**%$g billion, my f*%$£$g a^&e, the f@*^<g f&$k!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    WHAT. THE. FSCK!?!

    "explosion was caused by a combination of unusually high pressure and temperature."

    *Every* bleedin' explosion is caused by a combination of unusually high pressure and temperature. I mean DUH, every explosion *is* a combination of unusually high pressure and temperature. Radiating outward from a confined space.

    So, the explosion was caused by ... an explosion? And this means they're off the hook?

    Jeebus, sometimes I think there's no hope. Why the hell don't we teach even elementary logic and reasoning skills to every kid in school?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Elementary logic?

    @AC

    The organisation concluded that the explosion was caused by a combination of unusually high pressure and temperature.

    No shit really how interesting never would have predicted it.

    The reason AC is that our governments don't want us to be able to think for ourselves they have failed largely in this the stupid people we have, we have always had everyone just learns to think in their own.

  14. steve

    pop

    its simple realy it was left on a radiator witch caused the battery to heat up more than usual witch led to pressure build up and finaly the battrey went pop

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