[LINK] Qantas bans Dell laptop batteries

[Adam Todd]

Actually I'm more inclined to think it's not the physical cells used in the 
packs, but the circuitry within the battery pack failing.  A lot of "cheap" 
grade products have thermal snapping sensors to shut off charging when the 
battery gets HOT.  A Hot battery is not a guarantee of a charged battery 
and worse, if the thermal sensor carbonizes, which they do ....

And even if it's not a snapping thermal sensor, even the little ceramic 
ones can fail badly if they get excessively hot too often and batteries go 
get warm to touch when charged for long periods of time.

Without knowing the circuitry and how they have decided to charge, trickle 
and switch, I can't say much more.  I only know Powerbook, and some HP 
batteries.  The early compaqs were really bad news!  Toshiba's are all 
really good and IBMS are in my view are good too.


At 10:24 AM 24/08/2006, Howard Lowndes wrote:
>I think the problem is with the Sony batteries, and I doubt that Dell are 
>the only laptop manufacturer that uses Sony batteries.
>
>But I thought laptops had to go hold baggage anyway after the UK panic, or 
>have they relented on that?
>
>Kim Holburn wrote:
>>http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/safety-first-for-carryon-dells/2006/08/23/1156012601607.html 
>>
>>
>>>Safety first for carry-on Dells
>>>
>>>Qantas is issuing an advisory to all passengers on its flights on the 
>>>safe use of Dell notebooks following the recall of 4.1 million batteries 
>>>announced by the PC manufacturer last week.
>>>
>>>The airline said that although passengers would be allowed to carry 
>>>their Dells either as checked or cabin baggage, they could only use them 
>>>on battery power or through the aircraft power supply available in some 
>>>first and business class cabins once they have first removed the 
>>>batteries from the unit.
>>Something must have gone strange with that last sentence ummm... lets see:
>>They can only use them once they have removed the battery ... nope 
>>doesn't sound a lot better.
>>
>>--
>>Kim Holburn
>>IT Network & Security Consultant
>>Ph: +61 2 61258620 M: +61 417820641  F: +61 2 6230 6121
>>mailto:kim at holburn.net aim://kimholburn
>>skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request
>>Cacert Root Cert: http://www.cacert.org/cacert.crt
>>Aust. Spam Act: To stop receiving mail from me: reply and let me know.
>>Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD] http://www.saqqara.demon.co.uk/datefmt.htm
>>Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
>>                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Link mailing list
>>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
>
>--
>Howard.
>LANNet Computing Associates - Your Linux people <http://lannetlinux.com>
>When you want a computer system that works, just choose Linux;
>When you want a computer system that works, just, choose Microsoft.
>--
>Flatter government, not fatter government; abolish the Australian states.
>
>_______________________________________________
>Link mailing list
>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link