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| atomic_afro |
 Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 12:17 pm |
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Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 431
Location: Bellingham, WA (Home of Edirol USA!)
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Last Sunday, my Toshiba laptop started to make this weird sound, then smoke started to come out of its cooling vents (that's what I get for not building it myself  ). Of course I turned it off immediately, but damn! My laptop almost caught on fire... I'm sending it into Toshiba this week, hopefully they can fix it up.
Anyone else have similar experiences with their laptops?
ATA |
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| PeterKirn |
| Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 1:03 pm |
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Joined: 03 Feb 2006
Posts: 822
Location: New York, NY
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| I haven't, but it's not hard to imagine this happening. Any time a component short-circuits, it can overheat like that. Keep us posted! |
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| thesimplicity |
| Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:34 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 122
Location: Tucson, AZ
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I've had a similar experience... except with a desktop.
It's a long story, but the moral is this: if you hear anything about an electric storm in your area, immediately unplug everything from wall outlets. UPS solutions won't save you from the wrath of Thor. |
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| Jaymis |
| Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:51 pm |
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Joined: 04 Feb 2006
Posts: 260
Location: Brisneyland, Australia
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I thought UPSs were supposed to protect you from electrical storms? I don't own one, I'm sure that's going to bite me one of these days, but protection from storm-based surges was my biggest reason for wanting one.
My biggest reason for not buying one is the relatively large load which will be attached to it.. 2 desktops, 2 laptops, many associated peripheral devices.. I think this would require a relatively large and expensive UPS. |
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| thesimplicity |
| Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 11:06 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 122
Location: Tucson, AZ
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My understanding is that UPSs do protect from electrical surges, but only for a while. I am by no means a technical expert, but I believe the battery absorbs spikes and accounts for drops in voltages, while occasional spikes may 'slip by' due to frequency. My insurance guy said that any surge protector is only good for a number of uses before it stops absorbing surges.
My current Cyberpower UPSs seem to be non functional in the 'UPS' department. They're only a year old but the battery in each one is dead. I definitely don't plan on replacing them considering how much I payed for them originally. |
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| Jaymis |
| Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 11:21 pm |
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Joined: 04 Feb 2006
Posts: 260
Location: Brisneyland, Australia
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I'm aware that surge protectors aren't very effective (Australian Ubergeek Dan has had plenty to say about the topic), but I thought UPSs were supposed to be much better than surge protectors.
Do you know how close/massive the strike was which killed your gear? There was a storm here in Brisbane at the beginning of the year which fried several friends' computers (some of them several suburbs apart), but fortunately I was out of the country and none of my stuff was turned on. |
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| PeterKirn |
| Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 12:46 am |
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Joined: 03 Feb 2006
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Location: New York, NY
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Good grief, the static alone from a nearby electrical surge could wreak havoc. That should be covered by insurance, though; document your machines!
Generally speaking, UPS do provide more power conditioning from what I've heard. I mean, anything close to a direct strike and you might as well just get some marshmellows ready.  |
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| WarpedEye |
| Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:56 am |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 45
Location: Sweden
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That's too bad, Afro, I hope they fix it without any hustle!
One word of advice: A friend of mine had his laptop's motherboard go all smokey, so he sent it in for repairs under warranty. When he got it back a couple of weeks later, the hard drive was completely reformated, everything was gone. Aparently, in his user agreement, it said that the company did not take responsibility for any eventual loss of data. Yikes. |
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| atomic_afro |
| Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 12:15 pm |
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Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 431
Location: Bellingham, WA (Home of Edirol USA!)
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WarpedEye wrote: That's too bad, Afro, I hope they fix it without any hustle!
One word of advice: A friend of mine had his laptop's motherboard go all smokey, so he sent it in for repairs under warranty. When he got it back a couple of weeks later, the hard drive was completely reformated, everything was gone. Aparently, in his user agreement, it said that the company did not take responsibility for any eventual loss of data. Yikes.
Ah, that's why I did the smart thing and backed up all my data BEFORE I sent it in! Luckily, my laptop's HD can be removed easily from the back without voiding the warrenty. I unscrewed, copied, and put it back together without any noticable changes.
I know from experience that all manufacturers wipe the drive as the first step in any repair, even if it's a purely hardware issue. They figure it's no loss to them, and on the off chance it does fix the problem it would save the company money.
So folks, backup, backup, backup. I didn't, so I had to spend my entire Monday evening getting my data off (which I was lucky to do considering the state of my laptop).
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| rlainhart |
| Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:24 am |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 146
Location: Rockland County, NY
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| atomic_afro |
| Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2006 3:23 pm |
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Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 431
Location: Bellingham, WA (Home of Edirol USA!)
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theinquirer wrote: In light of the evidence, however, we'd suggest you avoid actually using a laptop on your lap.
You know, I had my laptop on my lap when it first started venting smoke. If I wasn't so quick with turning it off, it could have been me with a fireball in the crotch.
You know this sort of thing will happen more and more now with the rising demand for faster, lighter, smaller, cheaper, and longer lasting laptops. All of the above contribute to the danger of catastrophic cooling and battery failures. We've seen it time and time again with cell-phones, and you know it's only a matter of time before a large laptop battery explodes on top of its user.
Scary stuff.
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| garyg |
| Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2006 5:51 am |
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Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 109
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atomic_afro wrote: We've seen it time and time again with cell-phones
Really?
I'm not daft enough to think a mobiles battery isn't any kind of danger but I was unaware there had been explosive incidents... that's even scarier to a certain degree, mobiles get chucked everywhere (pockets, bags, luggage, car glove compartments...)
I'm considering some home-rigged cooler/lap tray as the underside of my centrino gets red hot around the processor. As you said, it's a double edged sword, I love the power and quietness of my laptop but you these advantages pushing the tech to it's limits.
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| Valoss |
| Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 1:10 pm |
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Joined: 03 Jul 2006
Posts: 1
Location: Chicago, IL USA
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| I'm assuming this was a Toshiba Satellite. They have notorious heat sink issues. After extensive searching on the subject, i found the cheapest solution: pop it open once in a while and clean it out. I must have cleaned out 1/2 inch of dust. |
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| atomic_afro |
| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 4:14 pm |
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Joined: 25 Mar 2006
Posts: 431
Location: Bellingham, WA (Home of Edirol USA!)
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| Thanks for the tip Valoss. By the way, the laptop came back last week. So barring any other distractions or set-backs I should have a new CDM article of some sort written up by the end of the weekend. |
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| midiguru |
| Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:57 pm |
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Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 28
Location: Northern California
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Valoss wrote: I'm assuming this was a Toshiba Satellite. They have notorious heat sink issues. After extensive searching on the subject, i found the cheapest solution: pop it open once in a while and clean it out. I must have cleaned out 1/2 inch of dust.
Yesterday I did the same thing to my desktop (actually a floor tower) machine. Long-nosed tweezers, one little gob of dust at a time, rotating the fan blades to get behind them. I wouldn't have a clue how to open my laptop, but so far (it's 3 years old) it doesn't seem to have needed it.
--JA |
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