>After reading up on the matter it seems that lithium batteries can swell, and there have been numerous reports in the past about older MacBook batteries swelling up and catching fire — however with the newer unibody laptops there is no way you can see this swelling happening.
That's true. Damn, Apple, how about a bloody sensor for such stuff at least to give an early warning?
>If you have a MacBook be careful leaving it unattended on the bed, battery fires burn hot and fast with little time to react.
Whereas if you have any other brand it's OK?
Millions of computer users were on red alert last night after they were warned that their laptops could burst into flames at any moment. In an extraordinary admission, the world's largest computer firm, Dell, said yesterday that 4.1 million laptops are at risk. The computer giant was forced to confess that problems with the laptop's batteries, made by Sony, means they are a major 'fire hazard'.
> how about a bloody sensor for such stuff at least to give an early warning?
FWIW, the MBP in question did shut itself off abruptly right before this happened. The author then immediately turned it on again and it proceeded to meltdown. Perhaps the protection against this sort of thing could have been a bit more reliable, but it appears the laptop did try to protect itself.
>FWIW, the MBP in question did shut itself off abruptly right before this happened. The author then immediately turned it on again and it proceeded to meltdown.
How is merely turning off a warning?
How would the user tell it from a random glitch with power, battery disconnect, etc?
It's not, but if it works reliably, it is at least protection against fires while no one is home.
Given the choice, is it better to start a fire when someone is home or out? That's a toughie, but on balance I think it's better when someones home, as there's a better chance for them to stop it or at least evacuate pets and gather important documents and treasures.
It's not a warning, it's a fail-safe. It's likely the sensor on the battery failed, so the heat sensor was all that was left.
A user can guess at the problem based on the temperature of the laptop. I've had my laptop turn off like this and I always let it cool down before powering it on again. You can argue that Apple needs more protection for issues like these and needs to message users better about how to deal with the behavior exhibited by the laptop, but you can't say that Apple does nothing or doesn't have any sensors.
How do you generate an appropriate warning without power ?
And you are assuming Apple can detect a battery failure distinct from say a component along the power supply path that has failed. So the safest solution is to switch off immediately.
The main thing that a warning would need to do is to shut off the power (especially since there's no guarantee that the device is attended at that moment) and the display+circuitry to drive it require nontrivial power.
but doesn't that mean firing up all sensors again, screen and other hardware required to display or perform the said warning, which will ofcourse create burden for the main battery again? I don't think CMOS/BIOS battery can be used for that task.
And I don't understand why only Apple has to do everything, it's not like only Macs are known to burn. User must have minimum knowledge on laptop over-heating.
The 2011 MBP I had given to mother had a similar issue. It's battery suddenly became swollen and just before that happened the computer shut down too, so yes I think there's some amount of protection. Luckily, there was no smoke or fire, just the battery being swollen and deforming the mbp.
I hope your MBP is not warning you about the end of your life ;)
My thinking about what your Mac is doing is in line with rsynnott, it might be based on your battery's current charge capacity vs. its original capacity, I'm more inclined to think the message is triggered by your battery's cycle count. You can find all this information in the System Information application, under Power.
There is a sensor. It tells you about your battery health all the time. You can even get further details by forcing the sensor information if you press Alt and click on the battery meter in the menu bar. It'll even tell you how many cycles are left.
Sorry, my comment was a little ambiguous. The sensor will tell you how many cycles are left, not the little menu bar trick. If you want to see how many cycles are used and left, click on the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of the screen, click on "About this Mac", and then click on "System Report". Click on the "Power" section on the left, and it'll show you all the sensor information including battery charge capacity, cycle count, and more.
By the way, option-click on a menu item to see more verbose info / more options works for most Apple menu items. It's super helpful for Sound, Wifi, Bluetooth, etc.
That's true. Damn, Apple, how about a bloody sensor for such stuff at least to give an early warning?
>If you have a MacBook be careful leaving it unattended on the bed, battery fires burn hot and fast with little time to react.
Whereas if you have any other brand it's OK?
Millions of computer users were on red alert last night after they were warned that their laptops could burst into flames at any moment. In an extraordinary admission, the world's largest computer firm, Dell, said yesterday that 4.1 million laptops are at risk. The computer giant was forced to confess that problems with the laptop's batteries, made by Sony, means they are a major 'fire hazard'.
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/I-Team-Investiga...