AFTERMATH: The bed that was destroyed by the fire allegedly due to an overheated laptop in Sarikei on Feb 16.
KUCHING: The recent case of an overheated laptop starting a fire in Sarikei on Feb 16 has sparked questions on safety and how such mishaps could be prevented.
NT Computer Trading owner and technician Nicholas Teo said there were several possibilities as to how the laptop caught fire.
And they are not confined to overheating.
Teo said similar to desktop computers, laptops are normally equipped with an auto shutdown feature when the temperature exceeds 80 degrees Celcius.
“When the laptop overheats, the chances of it igniting is very low because of the internal safety feature,” he said yesterday.
The safety of each laptop also depends on its brand.
According to Teo, the laptop battery could have become overheated, causing a small explosion which ignited the mattress of the 31-year-old who suffered third degree burns.
He said previous cases had been reported of a laptop battery exploding due to overcharging.
“Sometimes, users use the notebook on the bed with the adapter still charging eventhough the battery is already full,” Teo said.
Once the battery is full, the system by default would cut off the adapter’s electricity to the battery.
“There is a possibility that this feature is faulty,” added Teo, citing that some handphones would explode when its battery cells were overcharged.
Meanwhile a postgraduate student from Unimas, Lyhmer Jack said the incident was hard to believe as most overheated laptops shut down automatically.
On the technical side, the laptop could have internal problems causing the battery or motherboard to give off sparks.
Lyhmer said laptop users should cool down their laptops using fans and avoid using it on the bed.
“Even a normal table fan can be used by just pointing it directly on the laptop,” Lyhmer said of the quickest method to bring down the laptop’s temperature.