BOOM!
Last week coming back from a business trip, we had a little accident about 25,000 feet up. The battery in our 17-inch MacBook Pro exploded, literally.
In hindsight I think we were lucky we weren’t taken in as Al-Qaeda, but all we could think at the time was “Sweet! finally something went wrong within the 1-year warranty!” (We got our new battery today).
[UPDATE:] In answer to the questions of the MacBook Pro, no, it was not harmed. We were using it at the time on a seatback tray, and suddenly the screen went dead (well, the whole computer did). The battery actually didn’t look this bad until after we removed it from the MBP. It then kind of “expanded”. When it popped its seams inside the MBP, it just bowed out, so when resting flat, the laptop would actually rock back and forth on a rounded bottom. When we removed the battery, it was free from the constraints that were holding it together, and opened up to what you see there.
June 24th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Looks like deliberate damage to me. Sorry it’s not under warranty.
Seriously, was the MBP damaged or was that a spare battery?
June 24th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I hope you didn’t had it on your lap when this happened…
June 24th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Did it damage the Macbook Pro at all?
June 24th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Ouch! In carry-on or in the hold? Assuming carry-on, what did it sound like? How worried did the flight attenants get?
June 24th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Sure, you got a new battery. But did you also get some sort of heavy-duty iron rental coupon to flatten out your ‘puter.
Great to hear that things do indeed break before warranty expiration. At least with this you’ve kept a couple of actuarials in work again. I wonder if they use Macs…
June 24th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I am more concerned about the MacBook Pro itself…was it damaged at all?
June 24th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
I had the same thing happen to my 17″ MBP battery. No damage to the computer, and Apple replaced the battery with no issue. Luckily, I had an extra battery.
June 24th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Same thing happened to my 17″. Under warranty, replaced no problem. Mine happened over several days, kept getting bigger and bigger, but not as blown up as yours.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:02 am
This happened to me a few month’s ago.
June 25th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I had this happen with *two* different 17″ MBP batteries - they were purchased contemporaneously, so I assume they were from a dodgy batch. The replacement batteries have held up.
June 26th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I came close. My battery every so recently in my Mac Book Pro started to warp and was shutting down the computer at 50% battery power. I looked up the serial number and found that it was one of the ‘explodey’ batteries and could get replaced for free. I took it in and explained the problem and they said that my system was made after that time but that the battery issues definitely fall within the symptoms of those. In tracking it down, they found mine was in that batch and quickly replaced it. No explodee for me.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Glad it did not catch fire. If you ever find yourself sitting next to a burning laptop on a flight, take this comforting thought with you: There is nothing on the plane that can put out a lithium chemical fire.