14 DAY TRIAL // The MacBooks tend to become more and more popular, being regarded as the perfect alternative for the old-fashioned Windows or for the difficult to use Linux distributions. Today, Macworld reported a case that might make the aspirants for a MacBook think a little before they decide to acquire a new computer. mattyb, a MacTalk forum member and also an owner of the MacBook, posted a new message to announce that he found his laptop... burning! Although it might sound quite amazing, the fire was started by the battery that exploded and caught flames on the entire computer.
"At first I thought that the lamp had fallen and set fire to the curtain. As I got closer, I realized it was my [MacBook] ? burning! I picked it up and blew on it and swung it around to put the flames out. The bookshelf it was sitting on was burnt and there were a couple of magazines that were on fire too. Strange thing is, there was no symptoms like excessive heat or deformation of the battery or anything like that at all. I also checked quite a while ago to see if my battery was one of the recall units. It was not," mattyb wrote according to MacBook.
The Apple representative contacted the member of the forum and decided to visit their house to take the burned laptop and replace it with a new one as well as offer him damages for the fire caused by the battery. Although this was quite a lucky event for the MacBook owner, some other laptops might produce more impressive damages such as a big fire able to burn the entire house.
The case is at least interesting because in August 2006, Apple decided to cancel a new stock of 1.8 million lithium-ion batteries designed by Sony and able to function on iBook and PowerBook systems because they were extremely dangerous and could overheat. At that time, Apple replaced the batteries for free, so the owners of the 12-inch iBook G4, 2-inch PowerBook G4 and 15-inch PowerBook G4 computers were not too affected.