Unibody MacBook Pro Fire!

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I can tell you that the company I work for... unless it was YOUR equipment, you'd never hear the FA results. For what it's worth, every piece of electronics you own is subject to similar faults. Worse still, the wiring in your house probably has higher risk

It's best to find out both for them and us, before people start dying from it. Once it gets to that point it'll get costly.
 

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Just for the record and not trying to be a fanboy in any way. I have seen Dell Laptops burst into flames and very little was said but if an Apple product does it, people all rip into Apple and their products. Most of the Laptop fires I have seen were defective batteries. The few macs at least a year ago that I read about catching fire had the defective Sony manufactured batteries. That was clearly Sony's fault and they were recalled and new batteries given the user for free in the case of Apple at least.

The Dell's that I saw literally burst into flames had the same design batteries made by Sony.

The problem in this thread might be something different but I am sure Apple has looked into it. Trust me, they don't want to be sued either!
 

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It's best to find out both for them and us, before people start dying from it. Once it gets to that point it'll get costly.

It's worth pointing out that any electronic device is subject to fire, period. It doesn't matter whether it's a laptop or a blender. Anytime there is a short (and this is obviously the result of a short, either in the power adapter, the connector or the guts of the laptop), there's going to be smoke at the very least.

Keep an eye on your adapter's plug and the cabling. Make sure there's no cracks in the shielding or dirt around the port. I can almost guarantee you that this is what happened with this particular machine. Solid state electronics don't usually suffer these kinds of problems unless there is some external influence (like an animal chewing on a cable, damaging shielding).
 
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Jeez man thats brutal, makes me worried. Glad to hear your ok though and make sure you tell the folks at apple about the burn, they might be more willing to give you a new machine.;D
 

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Very good points CWA. Also another point you mentioned one time, make sure your Mag Safe plug and jack does not pick up any metal particles. That will cause a short for sure. It's a good idea to check it before you plug it in and be sure it's clean. It's magnetic after all and can pick up other metal. It does not take much to short out the pins.
 
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Well actually, that post just said that he was promised a replacement but he needed to talk to what I presume is the manager. We didn't full closure because we don't know exactly what Apple did to set him right. Was his replacement machine exactly the same as the one that got damaged or did he get an upgrade? Did Apple provide him with anything extra, say a free iPod? Inquiring minds wish to know ;P
 
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It's worth pointing out that any electronic device is subject to fire, period. It doesn't matter whether it's a laptop or a blender. Anytime there is a short (and this is obviously the result of a short, either in the power adapter, the connector or the guts of the laptop), there's going to be smoke at the very least.

Keep an eye on your adapter's plug and the cabling. Make sure there's no cracks in the shielding or dirt around the port. I can almost guarantee you that this is what happened with this particular machine. Solid state electronics don't usually suffer these kinds of problems unless there is some external influence (like an animal chewing on a cable, damaging shielding).

For sure, electrical devices can be dangerous when shorted, that's why the design, manufacturing and testing of these devices and appliances have to be very thorough and certified safe. And the thought of normal use by your average joe must be considered when designing these. Once manufactured there should not be any chance of shorts happening with these appliances and devices. That's why most of these have warnings in their documentation not to open or tamper with them and don't try to fix them unless you're a certified technician. For everyday normal use there better not be any of these fire hazards happening, that's unacceptable by any standard.

If the magsafe plug is a problem with picking metal pieces then obviously there's a design problem here, where they did not think about the consequences. I wonder if they have this in their safety documentation, to keep an eye on metal pieces on the magsafe plug.
 
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You guys obviously missed the post, on the first page of the thread, where it was already replaced.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/848135-post10.html

Based on this post, it looks like the power supply was replaced or worked on a couple of times prior to the fire incident. I'm suspecting that the technician screwed up something to cause a short, just my opinion. But Apple should have investigated this thoroughly. You don't take things like this lightly, this is a worse case scenario that could ever happen for any electrical device.
 
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Well actually, that post just said that he was promised a replacement but he needed to talk to what I presume is the manager. We didn't full closure because we don't know exactly what Apple did to set him right. Was his replacement machine exactly the same as the one that got damaged or did he get an upgrade? Did Apple provide him with anything extra, say a free iPod? Inquiring minds wish to know ;P
Would an upgrade be required? I would personally just be happy with a like replacement, then again.. perhaps I'm a bit more biased than most. I can tell you though, that once again IME... smoked parts are actually really rare.


I also assumed that since there was no further comment, that was the outcome.
 

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For sure, electrical devices can be dangerous when shorted, that's why the design, manufacturing and testing of these devices and appliances have to be very thorough and certified safe. And the thought of normal use by your average joe must be considered when designing these. Once manufactured there should not be any chance of shorts happening with these appliances and devices. That's why most of these have warnings in their documentation not to open or tamper with them and don't try to fix them unless you're a certified technician. For everyday normal use there better not be any of these fire hazards happening, that's unacceptable by any standard.

If the magsafe plug is a problem with picking metal pieces then obviously there's a design problem here, where they did not think about the consequences. I wonder if they have this in their safety documentation, to keep an eye on metal pieces on the magsafe plug.

I hate to break it to you, but you can not fix "stupid". There is no amount of engineering that can make any device absolutely safe, regardless of how poorly it's been handled or cared for.

I've said this before and it bears repeating. This can and does happen to laptops by ALL manufacturers. It's a safe bet that you'll never encounter it if you use some care and caution in handling it and also where you store it.

Every day our environment and the things we interact with introduce a fair amount of risk. The controls you put in place are what helps you to mitigate that risk. Unfortunately, every once in awhile, this sort of thing happens and for no good reason other than a drop of solder in the wrong place - a defect that could occur in any factory anywhere. Then again, an unseen meteorite, the size of Rhode Island could be approaching our planet now and strike tomorrow, wiping out life as we know it.
 
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I hate to break it to you, but you can not fix "stupid". There is no amount of engineering that can make any device absolutely safe, regardless of how poorly it's been handled or cared for.

I've said this before and it bears repeating. This can and does happen to laptops by ALL manufacturers. It's a safe bet that you'll never encounter it if you use some care and caution in handling it and also where you store it.

Every day our environment and the things we interact with introduce a fair amount of risk. The controls you put in place are what helps you to mitigate that risk. Unfortunately, every once in awhile, this sort of thing happens and for no good reason other than a drop of solder in the wrong place - a defect that could occur in any factory anywhere. Then again, an unseen meteorite, the size of Rhode Island could be approaching our planet now and strike tomorrow, wiping out life as we know it.

I don't buy the drop of solder in the wrong place as acceptable, I would consider that manufacturing defect. There's a reason why things happen, and you need to find out what it is. You can't just shrug a shoulder and say "it happens". I look at things like this a little different because of my 22 years working around airplanes and spending a couple of those years doing flight safety investigations. There's always a reason why something goes wrong and for the most part you can make or implement changes to prevent those things from happening again. A laptop that catches fire specially in flight is deadly, there's nothing much you can do if a battery shorts out.
 

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Can you tell me then a brand of Laptop that is perfect? Every one of that brand and model ever produced with not one issue? I have yet to see perfection in any electronics and I have been working in the field since the 60's when I was a kid.
 
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Can you tell me then a brand of Laptop that is perfect? Every one of that brand and model ever produced with not one issue? I have yet to see perfection in any electronics and I have been working in the field since the 60's when I was a kid.
or, in reality, aircraft parts. There's a failure chance there.. like any other engineering failure they normally require multiple points of failure to be catastrophic, but you don't see me overly concerned about riding on a commercial aircraft ;)
 

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I don't buy the drop of solder in the wrong place as acceptable, I would consider that manufacturing defect. There's a reason why things happen, and you need to find out what it is. You can't just shrug a shoulder and say "it happens". I look at things like this a little different because of my 22 years working around airplanes and spending a couple of those years doing flight safety investigations. There's always a reason why something goes wrong and for the most part you can make or implement changes to prevent those things from happening again. A laptop that catches fire specially in flight is deadly, there's nothing much you can do if a battery shorts out.

Well my friend, I'm not sure what to tell you. I work in IT and have hundreds of pieces of computer equipment. Every once in awhile, a flyback transformer dies on a monitor and lets off a big flash and puff of smoke - for no other reason than it's failed. I've had laptop batteries explode and have had laptops (Dell) catch fire - even had to send one back to Dell for inspection. It happens. Depending on the circumstances, it could have been dangerous too. Fortunately, in each of these cases, the damage was confined to the machine (just as it was in this case).
 
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Can you tell me then a brand of Laptop that is perfect? Every one of that brand and model ever produced with not one issue? I have yet to see perfection in any electronics and I have been working in the field since the 60's when I was a kid.

I love my macbook, I've only had it for a week. I'm not against any brand. My sole concern is a fire has happened with a laptop and it could have had serious consequences. Just want apple to know about it and I hope they look into it and fix the problem. And knowing Apple is a quality company, I'm sure they will. I would also just like to know that they have fixed it, I just don't like assuming anything.
 
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or, in reality, aircraft parts. There's a failure chance there.. like any other engineering failure they normally require multiple points of failure to be catastrophic, but you don't see me overly concerned about riding on a commercial aircraft ;)

My point is if there's something seriously wrong, investigate it, find the root cause, check to see if it's a widespread problem and fix it. That is done in the aircraft industry specially if there's a chance that the problem could cause a catastrophic failure. I'm sure you've heard of aircraft fleet being grounded until certain inspections have been carried out.
 
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Well my friend, I'm not sure what to tell you. I work in IT and have hundreds of pieces of computer equipment. Every once in awhile, a flyback transformer dies on a monitor and lets off a big flash and puff of smoke - for no other reason than it's failed. I've had laptop batteries explode and have had laptops (Dell) catch fire - even had to send one back to Dell for inspection. It happens. Depending on the circumstances, it could have been dangerous too. Fortunately, in each of these cases, the damage was confined to the machine (just as it was in this case).

I know things like that happen, I've seen it too. My only concern is that it has been looked at, checked and found the root cause, that it's not widespread and has been fixed.
 
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My point is if there's something seriously wrong, investigate it, find the root cause, check to see if it's a widespread problem and fix it. That is done in the aircraft industry specially if there's a chance that the problem could cause a catastrophic failure. I'm sure you've heard of aircraft fleet being grounded until certain inspections have been carried out.
And it doesn't matter what my HW engineer self says you won't believe that we do. There is a significant difference between a the levels of risk associated with an airplane and a laptop. Period. You seem to be utterly transfixed, and indeed obsessed with this particular issue. Statistically speaking it's rare. If it wasn't you'd have heard about it more often.

Caveats:

Since I do not work for Apple I can only speak in industry generalities. Additionally I'm done making comments about this issue. If it causes you this much worry, turn it off and unplug it.
 

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