iPod Defects

Teen's iPod Bursts Into Flames

2008-04-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

iPod Defects:

David Saadatamandi says his son's iPod burst into flames while he was listening to it at home. He says it wasn't plugged into a charger and wasn't near a flame or a heat source. It all happened unexpectedly.

He was so surprised, he researched the phenomenon on the internet and found, sure enough, other cases of iPod flame-outs. Japanese officials are investigating an iPod Nano that supposedly sparked while charging. Wired magazine keeps a photo gallery of burned out iPods.

The website HowStuffWorks traces the problem to the iPod battery. It's a lithium ion battery, similar to the kind used in laptop computers.

In 2006-2007 the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled millions of Sony laptop batteries after some overheated and caused fires. The CPSC reports the rise in portable electronic devices has led manufacturers toward batteries that "pack higher energy in smaller packages."

Whether that's the iPod defect that torched this iPod is unclear. David says he sent pictures to Apple hoping for some answers.

"It could very well be isolated cases, you know 3 bad incidents, but how many of them could be out there waiting to happen?" he says.

Neither Apple nor the Consumer Product Safety Commission would comment about iPod fires or other iPod defects.

Test Your iPod for Disk Defects!

2008-03-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

We encourage iPod owners to test their entire disks for bad sectors while your iPod is still under warranty!

Here is one way to test your iPod for bad disk sectors:

1. Reboot your iPod by holding down "MENU" and "PLAY/PAUSE".

2. When you see the Apple logo, Hold down these keys until the logo disappears:
"<<" - Back Button "
">>" - Next Button
"Wheel Button" - Center button on the Wheel

3. Suddenly you will hear a "Defender Fire" like sound and the Apple logo will be backwards. You have entered the Apple Diagnostic Toolset!

4. Using the Arrow keys scroll down to Option "O . HDD SCAN"

5. Press the "Wheel Button" to start the HDD SCAN and wait 4-10 hours for it to complete. The test will finish, it just takes time considering the size of the disk.

At the end if everything passed you will get a "DISK PASSED" or you will get a "DISK READ FAIL - 0x00000003" (or some other sector location.)

This will exhaustively test your disk for read and write capability. It will not affect the data on the disk, but it will assure you there are no bad sectors lurking on your iPod.

Japan Investigates Sparking Apple iPod

2008-03-20T14:59:00.000-07:00

Japanese government officials are investigating a possible defect that caused an Apple iPod to shoot out sparks while it was being recharged, it was reported Wednesday.

An official with the country's trade and economy ministry told the Associated Press that the incident, which occurred in January in Kanagawa Prefecture southwest of Tokyo, is believed to stem from a flaw in the iPod Nano's lithium-ion battery. Apple reported the problem to the ministry in March.

No one was injured by the sparks, which the ministry is categorizing as a fire. Apple has been ordered to find out the cause and then report back to the government.

Apple was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

The defective iPod's model number was MA099J/A, the AP reported. The ministry said about 425,000 iPods with that corresponding number were shipped into Japan between September 2005 and September 2006.

Japan is not the first to report problems with the iPod Nano. Last October, a resident of Douglasville, Ga., claimed that his Nano caught fire in his pocket. The man wasn't injured.

Defects in lithium-ion batteries have caused notebooks to shoot sparks and sometimes burst into flames. In January, the U.S. Transportation Department said airline passengers could no longer pack loose lithium-ion batteries in checked luggage.

Instead, passengers are required to take loose batteries with them in carry-on baggage, packed in plastic bags. The regulation did not apply to batteries installed in electronic devices, such as laptops, mobile phones and cameras.

In 2006, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Apple issued a recall of lithium-ion batteries made by Sony for certain iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 notebook computers. The recall was based on nine reports of batteries overheating, two of which involved minor burns. Other recalls of the Sony batteries were issued by Dell, Lenovo, Gateway, Acer America, and Toshiba. The problems prompted a massive recall by Sony.

Sony, however, hasn't been alone in dealing with defective batteries. In August 2007, Finnish phone maker Nokia recalled some 300 million batteries made by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006. Last December, Sanyo recalled 1.3 million mobile phone handset batteries for safety reasons.