Derek
Please read the following extracts from the San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NG5KKIPQ51.DTL
But a number of recent fires involving notebook computers, some aboard planes, have brought renewed scrutiny.
Dell has reported to the safety agency that it documented six instances since December in which notebooks overheated or caught fire. None of the incidents caused injuries or death. Dell said the problems were a result of a manufacturing defect in batteries made by Sony.
Dell has been bedeviled by reports of burning laptops in recent months. In June, a Dell notebook burst into flames during a conference in a hotel in Osaka, Japan. In July, firefighters in Vernon Hills, Ill., were called to an office of Tetra Pak, a food processing and packaging company, to extinguish a notebook fire hot enough to burn the desk beneath it.
That same month, a Dell notebook in the cab of a pickup parked alongside Lake Mead in Nevada caught fire, igniting ammunition in the glove box and then the gas tanks. The truck exploded. Fortunately ammunition is unikely to sit next to a computer in the overhead bins.
A single battery also caught fire in the overhead luggage bin of a Lufthansa passenger jet about to depart from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago in May. Note that this was NOT a Dell battery.
Now all I am suggesting is that it is easy and sensible for Dell users to visit this site
https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/Default.aspx
And check whether their machine's battery is subject to replacement.
It takes a minute.
After that, there will be one of two outcomes:
1 - the battery will not require replacement (like mine), no need to worry
2 - the battery will require replacement and there is a process to deal with that
That's all. I really don't care what you think about Kensington and Belkin products (although they and their lawyers, to say nothing of Danny might.) It is far from certain whether the problems are occuring when the laptop is connected to external power or not.
A little like powering down mobiles before flight, this seems like a no brainer action to support flight safety.
But then what do I know about fires and their effects......
..... apart from 57 people dying with a few metres of me at a football match.
I don't even wish to think about the consequences of a serious cabin fire, especially when a small amount of effort can mitigate it.