
My MacBook Pro exploded and burst into flames - mrzool
https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/bulbhv/my_macbook_pro_exploded_and_burst_into_flames/
======
ben7799
This started to happen to mine at work too. Luckily I got it down to IT before
it started on fire.

They took the hard drive out. Opening the case released pressure on the
swelling battery. As soon as it was open the battery started swelling faster.
The case could never have been closed again. The whole enclosure bent like a
soda can. I should have figured out earlier what was going on. The first sign
was the computer started to seem wobbly if you stuck it on the desk and typed
on the internal KB. I thought the little rubber feet on the bottom were worn,
in actuality it was the case starting to deform. What finally figured it out
for me was the swelling started to make the keyboard stop functioning
properly. Some keys were stuck.

It got stuffed in a bag and run over to the Apple store (which is only about
200 yards away).

Never heard a word about it again, they threw my HDD in another MBP and I was
off and running with almost no downtime.

Of course that was like a 2013 MBP, that would not happen with the 2018 one I
have right now since they can't be opened with a screwdriver and the internal
SSD is soldered.

~~~
el_cujo
>the 2018 one I have right now since they can't be opened with a screwdriver
and the internal SSD is soldered.

I'm going a little offtopic, but I cannot believe this. I haven't owned a Mac
since having a 2010 MBP (which I loved dearly for 6 years), but I cannot
imagine owning a laptop that doesn't allow me to switch the internal drive. It
was annoying enough with all of the screws on the 2010 model.

I'm sure there is some justification is for this beyond "we want you to buy a
new one if something goes wrong", but I'm coming up blank.

~~~
WrtCdEvrydy
Yes... soldered RAM, hard drive and everything into a pricy motherboard so if
any of the cheaper components fail, you can pay for a whole new motherboard.

~~~
jbverschoor
Simply not true. The ssd can be removed / swapped. Only the ram is soldered.

~~~
jplayer01
Huh? The SSD has been soldered on the MacBook Pro since the 2018 version
afaik.

------
russtrotter
I'm sitting here typing this response on a 2016 MBP (the first gen with the
butterfly keyboard and touchbar). Due to some thermal issues, I unscrewed the
cover to blow the dust out and discovered my batteries are all swelling.
Yikes. I wonder if there's a follow-on recall in a year or so for this
generation. I bought a battery replace kit from ifixit so I might kick the can
down the road for a bit longer, time will tell.

More broadly thinking though, Unix/BSD underpinnings OS, driver support, and
hardware that sacrificed thin/light for components that were reliable and some
DIY capability? I kid can dream

~~~
jpalomaki
I think the swollen batteries are quite common in the MacBook Pros. Seems to
be plenty of reports on the net. Typically people seem to notice this when the
trackpad or keyboard starts acting funny.

Not sure if Apple even considers that as a defect or if it is just the way
some of the batteries are expected to behave when they get old.

~~~
asadkn
Which is really odd that I have never experienced or seen it in the older
laptops. Perhaps it's a fairly new thing in the increasingly common thin form
factor (Apple or otherwise but I haven't heard much of others).

~~~
jandrese
Older laptops left space for the batteries so they could swell slightly
without damaging the laptop. Apple's design leaves no such space.

~~~
rightbyte
Are Apple using cylindrical cells or pouches? Cylindrical cells doesn't swell
in the same way and have pressure cap before they crack the shell. Pouches
probably has to swell abit before their cap pop.

------
mekpro
And Apple just announced the battery recall
[https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/20/apple-2015-macbook-
pro-...](https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/20/apple-2015-macbook-pro-recall-
program/)

~~~
jchw
It’ll be interesting to compare the public reception of this incident versus
the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 event, especially given Apple’s PR prowess. Seems
like a similar sort of incident, though maybe even rarer to actually encounter
given how old the laptops are now.

~~~
vallsurf
The difference here is a single (known) instance of a 4 year old product vs
widespread issues with a brand new one on release.

~~~
bilbo0s
Well, I think it's more likely that the fact that it's a notebook will make
this less of a PR issue. HN is kind of a unique place, but out in reality land
the set of people who take their 15" notebook with them everywhere, including
the airplane, is much smaller than the number of people who take their phones
with them everywhere. So it's hard to capture the public imagination with a
notebook.

Apple releasing a new phone is an event not only for a lot of developers, but
also for your average teeny bopper and housewife.

Apple releasing a brand new laptop is just...

not.

~~~
makomk
Also, most people aren't going to grab a camera and start filming when their
laptop catches fire in their house so they can post it to the internet. That
limits the number of videos like this you'd expect compared to a similar
smartphone fault, which is more likely to happen in public with other people
standing around idle that might film it. I'd venture a guess that this is very
far from being the first such fault in four years, especially given how
willing Apple was to announce a recall.

~~~
zaarn
If your smartphone catches fire, in a lot of cases _your camera_ just caught
fire!

------
WalterBright
My desktop caught fire once. I pulled the plug and the fire went out. Turns
out the graphics card burst into flames. That had never happened to me before
in 40 years of desktops.

I had a fair amount of smoke damage that needed cleaning up.

Now it sits on a piece of sheet steel instead of the wood floor.

Edit: I usually assemble my desktop cases from mail order parts. This desktop
happened to have a metal case rather than a plastic one - my future builds
will all be metal cases.

~~~
agumonkey
Well, they did warn you
[https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fak1.ostkcdn...](https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fak1.ostkcdn.com%2Fimages%2Fproducts%2F73%2F428%2FL13344732.jpg&f=1)

~~~
cgoecknerwald
I don't get it, can you explain?

~~~
samb1729
Read the text on the GPU

------
RaSoJo
For those wondering - it is the 2015 MBP Retina 15"
[https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/bulbhv/my_macbook_pr...](https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/bulbhv/my_macbook_pro_exploded_and_burst_into_flames/epe2rz1/)

~~~
ngngngng
I would put money down that his serial number is not included in the recent
recall. As usual, Apple seems to be in denial of the extent of the issues.

~~~
1123581321
Would you agree to bet a donation (the EFF or something else you like?) We can
ask the reddit user to check their serial.

------
SSchick
I also had my battery swell recently to the point where the bulging was
visible and noticeable as the mbp wouldn't lay flat on the table anymore. When
I consulted the apple store (Berlin) about it they told it I need not to worry
about it and I wouldn't be eligible for a battery swap as the mbp was
performing 'nominally'. I was sceptical and let the battery drain over night,
it ended up turning off at ~30% supposed capacity. I brought it to an
'unofficial' repair shop who instantly opened the mbp, the bottom lid was
thrown off due to pressure after removing the last screws. The battery was
swollen to the point where it looked like it was about to burst and the
repairman was visible nervous. He ended up removing the battery on a outdoor
table and replaced it.

Something similar happened to one of my colleagues too, albeit after just 3
months of ownership.

~~~
megous
> When I consulted the apple store (Berlin) about it they told it I need not
> to worry about it

Those people are assholes. Literally.

> Once you notice the battery is swollen or compromised in any way, you should
> immediately stop using the device. Turn the power off, and above all else,
> do not charge the device. Once the battery has reached such a point of
> failure that the battery is swollen, you must assume that all safety
> mechanisms in the battery are offline. Charging a swollen battery is
> literally asking for it to turn into an exploding ball of noxious flammable
> gas right in your living room.

[https://www.howtogeek.com/244846/what-to-do-when-your-
phone-...](https://www.howtogeek.com/244846/what-to-do-when-your-phone-or-
laptop-has-a-swollen-battery/)

~~~
whymsicalburito
Literally?

~~~
bishala
[https://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/according_to_the_dictionary...](https://www.salon.com/2013/08/22/according_to_the_dictionary_literally_now_also_means_figuratively_newscred/)

------
coldtea
> _I produce music for a living - FIVE days without my computer is
> unacceptable_

Then get two computers as a backup?

While here it's Apple's issue, it could just as well be your fault that the
laptop died (e.g. dropping it).

Then you wouldn't have any laptop, but also no justification to demand an
immediate replacement or deem not receiving one "unacceptable"...

~~~
simion314
>Then you wouldn't have any laptop, but also no justification to demand an
immediate replacement or deem not receiving one "unacceptable"

My computer failed to start one morning, it was my work only computer that I
use for my job(work remote from a village) so I went in the city with the PC,
I found a shop, the person there tested my RAM,CPU and other parts, the
motherboard was broken, I baught a new motherboard , paid the poerson to
replace it, I also asked for a GPU upgrade and a cleaning.

In a few hours I was back working. If this was a MacBook there is no store in
the small city I live near, I would probably had to find someone that could
"illegaly" test the laptop and that would use his connections to find me some
"illegal" parts and wait for those parts to arrive.

I am also using my PCs after the warranty expires and fix them if a component
breaks(like memory). My old AMD Phenom 2 is still running (my son uses it for
lite gaming). is the one that I had to replace the motherboard. (I also bought
a quality APS to keep my equipment safe)

~~~
lloeki
Based on this information I infer that you have a desktop machine. If you had
a PC laptop you’d be equally screwed, with zero chance the shop had a spare
motherboard for your machine.

Granted you’d be equally screwed with a Mac Mini or iMac but fundamentally
this has nothing to do with Apple vs PC. Desktop PCs that can be changed with
standard parts or even custom built are not the market norm anymore and
entered the specialised market realm long ago.

Your post also reads very much as "You're wrong to use Apple" but you have to
realise that they produce a very reasonable solution for many. My use case
covers a wide spectrum of mobility, security, dev, music, and photo/video
editing, and while alternatives can do things like that they won't do so as
efficiently and with the same quality across that whole spectrum _for me_. It
would be foolish to shoot myself in the foot by nerfing my workflows every
single minute of the day for a rare event. I do have a spare machine (which
does not need to be the latest and greatest so can come out pretty cheap),
which allows me a very quick turnover to continue working, well within an hour
of a fatal failure (and that's even though I have an Apple Store 5 min away
from my place).

~~~
simion314
Not true,IMO

1 I would have got the person at the shop check it and tell me if I need a new
laptop or a new part, this happened to a laptop of mine and I decided I would
get a new laptop, then the shop person offered to buy the display and RAM from
me and I sold it, so a different person would be able to fix his laptop

2 a spare part can be found from a different laptop or ordered online by the
shop, so they can order it at the time I arrived with my broken laptop

I don't think that I would have been screwed but let me know if you still
disagree.

~~~
lloeki
> this happened to a laptop of mine and I decided I would get a new laptop

Equally true for Apple hardware, that you can get in most reasonably sized
shopping malls basically anywhere over here (France). Most places that sell
laptops also sell Apple hardware.

~~~
simion314
Maybe I do not understand your point, but can you go with a broken Apple
laptop , without a schedule to shopping mall, have someone test it, tell you a
diagnose and how much will it cost, ifv you decide you want a new one would
the shop offer you money for the working parts of your Apple laptop( Apple is
trying to make this illegal, reusing parts)

~~~
lloeki
Oh, maybe it's just me that was confused and did not understand your case. Let
me fix that: you went to the shop for a diagnosis maybe expecting a simple
operation and was told the computer requires unexpectedly expensive repair, so
you bought a new one instead? I thought you knew it beforehand since it was
old already.

In that case where there is no Apple sanctioned repair presence such shops
either usually sell Apple hardware and gladly perform support and diagnosis if
that can bring them a sale, or they're nice enough to help you anyway with the
diagnosis out of good will (people are generally like that in digitally scarce
areas) and will direct you to get a new one at the mall (or, they're dicks and
then, screw them).

You have every right to call me an optimist about human behaviour though ;)

~~~
simion314
Right, is the same here in Romania, a third party shop will try to help you
fix any laptop,phone,tablet , I dislike the fact that Apple is attacking this
shops with lawsuits, FUD campaigns, preventing others to buy parts etc.

------
chakintosh
This made me wince.

I haven't backed up my mac in 10 months now simply out of laziness, it
contains some sensitive client work that NDA doesn't allow me to put in the
cloud, it's millions of dollars worth of work and contracts, if I lose it, my
company loses those clients as well.

And my MBP gets really hot sometimes. Expect a TIFU from me at anytime.

~~~
basilgohar
You can use a service like Backblaze[1] and encrypt the backups with a
password. This is saving you a LOT of worry and risk for $6/month.

[1][https://www.backblaze.com](https://www.backblaze.com)

~~~
wDcBKgt66V8WDs
I'm pretty sure the recovery process for backblaze includes them decrypting
your files on their infrastructure and then sending to you. Or something like
that. I did a ton of research into the different options recently and didn't
like backblaze because of that.

However, I decided to give them a try anyway as I was partly researching for a
friend who desperately needed backups and didn't care about that as much. So I
installed backblaze on a machine and was surprised to find that 1) the exe is
apparently modified per user so you don't have to login (memory hazy) and 2)
it _immediately_ starts uploading _everything_ which really pissed me off.
Like I get it, full system backups, but still I want some acknowledgement of
what's about to happen and options to pare it down if I want. Nooope.

So yeah I don't think Bacblaze is gonna work for GP with their NDA given they
can't restore without breaking it.

~~~
xoa
I'll point out that nothing stops you, with any service at all, from
encrypting yourself then backing that up. Ie., it's completely fine with
Backblaze to dump everything into an encrypted sparseimage first, and then
back up _that_ rather then your drive directly. That's not to say getting a
couple of simple external USB HDDs and then rotating them into a firesafe
offsite once a week isn't a good idea too, or having a NAS, or any of an
endless number of other solutions.

But in many cases using a 3rd party cloud service has advantages, and if you
take care of encrypting contents yourself so that you just plain can ignore
any security or lack thereof it'll make more options available, and possibly
cheaper ones. It's all just bits and bytes.

~~~
wDcBKgt66V8WDs
This is true but it adds a lot of complexity and brittleness for the average
person.

------
asadkn
I believe with the recent recall, Apple's doing the bare minimum in a PR
damage control. A lot more batteries have to be affected than they're letting
in.

My MBP mid-2015 has swollen batteries twice in 3.5 years. Now I have to pay
$500-750 (Authorized Service Providers quote), as Apple Care expired, for
something that increasingly looks like Apple's fault.

~~~
chris_wot
If you are Australian, then they _must_ fix this, regardless of if you have
Apple Care.

------
s_dev
Hmmm 2016 MacBook Pro here -- just brought it back to have the keyboard
serviced. Checked the website and it says:

>The serial number you entered is not eligible under this program because
either:

>It's not in the affected serial number range.

>Our records show that your device has already been serviced as part of this
Program.

Opened up Cocunut Battery and have relized they replaced the battery without
telling me. It's done very subtely on the service completion document --
"Replaced Top Case with Battery" \-- are these parts not seperate?

~~~
kalleboo
> are these parts not seperate?

No they are not. Anyone getting their keyboard replaced gets a new battery.
Anyone getting their battery replaced gets a new keyboard/top case.

This is one of the reasons that out-of-warranty repairs for the butterfly
keyboards were $700 (before the repair program was launched).

------
busymom0
Note that this is a 22 day old Reddit post (seems relevant as it’s few weeks
before the battery replacement program announcement).

~~~
neogodless
Yes - I'm finding it rather unfulfilling that there's no update as to what the
resolution was!

"If you don't talk about this incident any more on social media, here's a
shiny new MacBook Pro. Otherwise, you get the ashes of your old laptop."

OK just spitballing because we have no idea if they offered up a replacement
or left him in the lurch.

~~~
jmull
You write like it's a bad thing, but if this is resolved by Apple doing right
by their customer, isn't that a good thing?

Obviously, that is a rage post (understandably). OP seems to no longer be
enraged... problem solved, right?

~~~
neogodless
My opinion is that it would be helpful to the public to know how Apple is
handling the situation. Maybe they aren't obligated to inform us, and the
individual is not obligated to keep us up to date either, but I would like to
know how things turned out.

------
saganus
Those fumes in the video can't be healthy, right?

Why is this person standing there just inhaling that? I would be very
concerned about breathing battery-fire fumes, no?

Maybe they are not as toxic as I think? What should one do if this happens?
Pouring water might make things worse, right?

~~~
cr0sh
I wouldn't breathe it. It probably won't kill you, but it won't be healthy,
either. If anything, it would be like breathing the fumes from welding on
galvanized steel.

Now - maybe you haven't done this; I'd suspect many haven't. Galvanized steel
has a coating of zinc, which boils at a much lower temperature than steel
melts at. So when you're welding on such steel, the smoke and fumes given off
(which even when welding normally should be avoided) are particularly nasty:

[https://www.bakersgas.com/weldmyworld/2011/12/03/side-
effect...](https://www.bakersgas.com/weldmyworld/2011/12/03/side-effects-
welding-galvanized-steel/)

A mild case of it basically feels like a very terrible cold/flu - but it can
be deadly in great amounts. I'd suspect (but I'm not sure) that lithium fumes
might cause similar symptoms.

And just for sake of completeness, because a lot of people aren't aware of it
- if you weld, never, ever weld on anything that has been soaked with brake
cleaner that contains tetrachloroethylene. It will release phosgene gas, which
is deadly in small amounts:

[https://www.brewracingframes.com/safety-alert-brake-
cleaner-...](https://www.brewracingframes.com/safety-alert-brake-cleaner--
phosgene-gas.html)

That's from a guy who survived such an accidental exposure - but he's now
messed up for life. You can still buy this kind of brake cleaner in some
states, but it's not for sale in others (I believe its banned from sale in
California).

It's not so much that particular chemical, as it is the chlorine makeup of the
chemical (the -chloro part); you could probably generate such gas by heating
and vaporizing household bleach or pool chemicals that have chlorine in them,
if you wanted to. But neither of those are likely to be used around steel and
mechanical work like brake cleaner is.

------
mrzool
Related to:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20235259](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20235259)

------
wimagguc
(CNN, June 20) Apple recalls batteries in some older 15-inch MacBook Pros:
[https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/tech/apple-recall-macbook-
pro...](https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/20/tech/apple-recall-macbook-
pro-15-inch/index.html)

For everyone who's involved, seems like it's not a one off.

------
bsg75
Isn't this always going to be a risk with high energy density batteries made
from components that are volatile, especially in oxygen?

I suspect that the quality of manufacture will be a significant factor in
mitigation of that risk, but is there a currently available battery design
that produces enough power for enough time without carrying some risk of
ignition?

------
eden_hazard
I have the 2015 15" MacBook pro too and it has a bunch of battery related
issues. Last August, I used it until the battery died. The next day I turned
it on and the computer was super slow and laggy. The CPU usage was maxed out
and I couldn't figure out what was causing it. I rebooted the thing,
reinstalled the OS, and tried all sorts of things to reset the battery but
nothing worked. I didn't use it for two weeks and then the problem fixed
itself. I haven't had the issue again and am too lazy too fix it.

Since then, there's another issue that surfaced. The laptop turns off whenever
it reaches 100% charge. Have to see if it's covered under this recall...but
probably not knowing my luck.

------
dbg31415
"[Ineligible because our] records show that your device has already been
serviced ..."

Cool, thanks Apple. Glad I got to pay like $700 for this when my 2015 MBP was
overheating so much last year that the battery swelled and broke the
motherboard. I just did a quick live-chat with one of the tech support
people... no chance for a refund on the work I had done 8 months ago to
replace the battery and repair damage it caused. It really sucks that people
who proactively dealt with this can't get compensated for what is now
acknowledged as a manufacturing flaw.

------
IloveHN84
I wish there was a better support for MacOS X on Virtual box, so you can
virtualize it on a Linux/Windows laptop with latest hardware, in case you need
it.

Apple hardware is too pricey and sucks recently

------
PebblesHD
While I do appreciate Apple’s particularly literal approach to ‘halt and catch
fire’[0] this is a good reminder to have my battery replaced as soon as I’m
near an Apple store. I wonder what the statistical probability of this
actually happening to _my_ device is?

[0] -
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire)

------
dazhbog
Typing this on a 2015 13 inch macbook pro with 4 out of 6 batteries swelled..
I'm pretty sure I could get Apple to service it but I will attempt to do
locally here in Shenzhen. It is around 50USD to replace the batteries on the
spot with a "new, original" pack..

The dilemma is, do I want an "original" pack back in?

------
specialist
Is there a way to make these batteries fail-safe?

Could the device itself know when the battery is bulging, on fire, whatever?

Could the power connectors themselves be designed to disconnect if the battery
expands?

------
yumraj
I have had several, note plural, swollen batteries from older MBPs when they
were the external kind and not the internal as now.

~~~
craftyguy
I've seen this on non-Apple laptops too. But, since this is 'hacker' 'news',
anecdotes that do not work in Apple's favor get several front page postings
here.

------
brokenmachine
It was only 3 days ago all the Apple fanboys were coming out in the comments
saying it hurts the Apple brand when a third-party battery catches fire, so
you can't allow people to repair their own phones. SMH.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20234022](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20234022)

------
skizm
Wonder if this is a similar situation to the exploding Samsung notes. Faulty
battery manufacturing.

------
vishnugupta
Seems like the person filing is inhaling a fair bit of smoke. Wonder how toxic
that is.

~~~
origami777
That was my first thought. I'd be out of there. Though you might want to
ensure its not going to catch that floor on fire.

------
dschuetz
This is a new low for Apple. A lot of memes were dedicated to exploding
Samsung Galaxy Note devices and that has been laughing stock for years now.
Bursting batteries in a "Pro" line of Apple devices is unacceptable. If you
don't want to set your pants on fire don't buy pro from Apple.

------
ydnaclementine
Will these be banned from planes? (similar to samsung note)

------
thegurus
Keyboards, batteries... what is wrong with you, Apple?

~~~
marcinzm
Don't forget the screen cable breaking and requiring the screen to be
replaced.

------
rapfaria
So, turn off my seedbox when I leave home?

------
DigitalTerminal
First a samsung phone and now this.

------
grumdan
I wonder if they have grounds to sue, over Apple producing an unsafe product.

~~~
dijit
I find that to be very unlikely. Batteries are known to have failure modes
that include explosion. It’s certainly not unique to this laptop, or even
laptops alone. This is the only case I’ve heard about and it’s a 4year old
laptop that had been repaired.

As such I don’t think it’s a fault in the design, necessarily.

------
jen729w
Also in the news today, many houses caught fire due to electrical faults. [0]

Things go wrong. The world isn’t perfect. There are many millions of MacBooks
Pro in circulation.

Next.

[0]:
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=house+fire&iar=news&df=d&ia=news](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=house+fire&iar=news&df=d&ia=news)

~~~
chris_wot
Wait till it happens to you.

------
xxzAH
Perhaps it is time to stop making everything thinner and produce a sturdy
notebook with a decent keyboard again.

It appears that it was possible with the T60 a decade ago.

~~~
jbrooksuk
The 2015 is the last model with the decent keyboard, so that's not the problem
here.

