Another news just out from US tech websites.
Dell laptop detonates in UK home
By Tony Smith
1st September 2006 15:19 GMT
A Leicestershire family was this left in shock after their Dell
laptop exploded "like fireworks" and set light to their living room
furniture, it was reported this week - just before news broke of
Sony's decision to appoint a battery safety officer.
According to a story in the Leicester Mercury, the Allen family of
Eskdale Road, Hinckley witnessed the spontaneous combustion of
their laptop on 25 July.
The notebook, a Dell Latitude C600, was left alone in the family
home to load a game. When the Allens came in to see how it was
doing, the machine blew up.
"There are six batteries inside a compartment, and they were
shooting out like fireworks, like rockets," Shaun Allen, 39, told
the paper. "They even bounced off the ceiling, they went up that
high."
The exploding batteries set fire to the sofa and the carpet, the
paper reports.
Curiously, the computer had not been bought from Dell but from an
unnamed shop in Coventry a year ago. Mr Allen said he paid £500 for
the machine. Dell told the paper it believes the battery that
burned was not one supplied by the company, but a third-party
product. However, it said it would give the Allen's a new machine
as a gesture of goodwill.
Last month, Dell formally requested 4.1m customers around the world
return batteries shipped with its notebooks sold between 1 April
2004 and 18 July 2006. The recalled lithium-ion batteries were made
by Sony, Dell said. A week later, Apple also insituted a recall of
batteries manufactured by Sony.
Separately, the Japanese giant today said it was appoint the head
of its TV division, Makoto Kogure, to take charge of the company's
product quality and safety assurance efforts, a role that will
oversee firm's battery manufacturing. However, the company was keen
to stress the move was not solely the result of the Dell and Apple
recalls.
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/01/dell_laptop_combustion_uk/
CRASH, BANG!
BY SHIRLEY ELSBY
10:15 - 31 August 2006
A family today revealed how they narrowly escaped injury when a
laptop computer exploded in their home.
The incident, at a house in Eskdale Road, Hinckley, sent small
batteries from the device around the room, setting fire to carpets
and a settee.
The family of six, including a 12-year-old boy who had suffered a
scalding accident a few days previously, were terrified.
Computer manufacturer Dell recently recalled a range of their
laptops after overheating incidents.
Dad Shaun Allen, 39, said the drama experienced by him, his wife,
Lyndsey, 29, and their children Nicholas, 12, Joshua, 10, Sophie,
six, and Jacob, two, happened weeks before the recall. The
offending laptop was a Dell Latitude C600 bought from a shop in
Coventry, about a year before for about £500.
Nicholas had been trying to play a game on it but had problems with
it.
Mrs Allen then put it on charge on a table while it loaded the
game, and all the family went outside.
Mr Allen said: "As we all decided to go back in, the laptop
exploded.
"There are six batteries inside a compartment, and they were
shooting out like fireworks, like rockets.
"They even bounced off the ceiling, they went up that high.
"I tried to extinguish the laptop and cover it over with a towel. I
tried to carry it outside, but it was still exploding and I let go
of it.
"As I dropped it, more batteries came out like fireworks. A couple
of them hit the ceiling then bounced on the floor. Another one hit
the ceiling and set fire to the carpet. My wife was jumping on it
to put it out.
!I chucked the laptop outside and went in to put the settee out as
that was burning, too."
Helped by a neighbour who is a police officer, Mr and Mrs Allen
were able to extinguish the flames themselves.
They said the incident had frightened them all, especially
Nicholas, who had spent the previous week being treated at
Nottingham City Hospital after being scalded by a kettle of boiling
water on holiday on July 18.
He had been allowed home on July 24 and the explosion took place on
the following day.
The family's insurance claim has now been settled, enabling Mr and
Mrs Allen to talk to the Mercury about the incident.
Dell recently recalled various makes of computer, saying that Dell
branded batteries with cells manufactured by Sony could, under rare
conditions, overheat.
An investigator examined the Allens' laptop.
A Dell spokesman said that although they believed the
battery which exploded was not the original supplied by Dell, the
company was supplying a new laptop as a gesture of goodwill for the
family's co-operation with the investigation.
Good news is that i think Dell service is getting better, at least
they supply a new laptop. 
