Has anyone gotten a burn from their laptop?

I have an HP laptop with a dual processor, and it gets really hot on the bottom. I went to bed one night about 10 days ago, and was exhausted from fighting an infection.

I pulled a sheet over me, and grabbed the laptop, opened it, and set it on my legs. I needed to check something before i went to sleep. I leaned back, and shut my eyes for just a moment. Next thing my alarm was going off.

My leg was sore from the laptop, it felt very warm. When I was getting in the shower, I had a raised area of skin with 2 blisters. I covered them, and when I got home from work, the blisters had enlarged to the size of my little finger.

I called the doc, and was told to use neosporin and keep it covered and don't break the blister. After 5 days the blister broke. I kept up with the neosporin, cleaning it and kept it covered. My leg got infected, I'll spare the gory details, got into the doc, had a temp, and they cleaned the burn, I didn't realize, it had gone into the muscle.

Gave me some anti-bacterial/antibiotic cream to use. I've been following the doc's instructions using the cream, and it's starting to heal. I'm still fighting it being infected. Have a doc appt. tomorrow.

I have 3 other laptops. Two are IBM's, and they get a little bit warm, but not hot, no problems. The other one is another HP, and it doesn't get hot, just warm.

My HP that burned me gets so hot, I can put it on the table, it has small legs so there is venting room, it has vents on the bottom to dissipate heat, but it gets so hot underneath, where the processor is, I can't touch it with my hand.

Now, I know I shouldn't have fallen asleep with it, so please don't tell me that, but then I feel it shouldn't be so damn hot that I would get a second degree burn from it.  I feel I should call HP, or a lawyer.

What do you all think? And, has anyone been burned by their laptops?

Nope, never been burned by a laptop.  Mine all get warm, but never have any of them gotten THAT hot!

I would DEFINITELY call HP!  See what they will do about it, or for you!

Chuck

PS sorry you have this shit thrown at you ON TOP of clusters!

Sounds like a MALfunction to me... CALL HP and see what they have to say -- if they don't do something - then call a lawyer.... and see what HE has to say....

Hugs BD

It sounds like the CPU cooling fan died, but it should have shut down from the over temp condition.

If it has an AMD processor, they tend to get very hot. If the processor over temp override is selected in the bios the sucker could easily cook an egg. Not all portable bios's have this feature but some designed for extreme environments do.

If the cooling fan still works and it got that hot you may have a legal recourse.

Roland [smiley=damncomputer.gif]

Mine (also a HP dual core model) gets rather hot but I've never been burned.

The cooling fan runs constantly, and sometimes kicks into overdrive, so to say. It's got an intel dual core chip, and it's never over heated.  It just runs hot. Been like this since I got it... over a year ago.

I'm very careful about making sure it is vented... and that night, I had it sitting more on my left leg, so it would be able to vent.

Thanks for the info Rolo, and thank you too Barb.

The only other thing I can think of if the fan is running all the time is that maybe the CPU overclocking feature is is enabled in the bios?

If it is, try disabling the overclocking and see if it runs cooler.

Roland. ;)

I'll boot it up and check the Bios. Thanks Roland.

Still going to call HP though.

HP bioses usually don't have this option.
In addition the core2 based CPUs automatically slow down when they get too hot.
Looking at my laptop I rather think it has to do with the graphics chip.

Edited:
Forgot to add: Vista, due to "improved" graphics, seems to has its share.

Gizmo, I tend to think Purpleydog is running Linux or Fedora on that computer, and if the screen saver was on it may be the video chipset.

Edit to add; if the video chips are getting hot try setting it to a blank screen saver and se if it still runs hot. ;)

Actually, this HP has Vita Ultimate 64 bit on it. I haven't had a chance to boot it yet, but I'll let you know... will be shortly.

I'm aware of that...
I mainly mentioned Vista since this beast, especially when used with all the fancy "gfx improvements", contributed quite a bit to the heat of my laptop.

I would do a little research and see if this is a chronic problem for this laptop.
Remember a couple years ago Dell batteries got so hot they caught fire?  I wonder if you laptop has sparked any fires.  I would definately call HP.

Newer laptops are running very hot these days. Apple has said their Macbook pro's are notebooks, not laptops, as in they are not meant to put on your lap after several people reported burns.

Probably your best bet is to only use it in bed running on batteries, it should run much cooler that way, and in a few hours it will hibernate when the batteries run low.

Paul [smiley=smokin.gif]

gizmo wrote on Sep 1^st, 2008 at 10:46am:

HP bioses usually don't have this option. In addition the core2 based CPUs automatically slow down when they get too hot. Looking at my laptop I rather think it has to do with the graphics chip. Edited: Forgot to add: Vista, due to "improved" graphics, seems to has its share.

You are right, there is no overclocking in the bios, all I have is CPU C4 Function: Enable or Disable.

Thanks Roland for your help, you too gizmo.

Brian, I'll definitely  research this, plus I have the perfect guy in Newport to hire.

Paul, yer prob right. The battery on this only lasts for a couple hours anyway... But I don't plan on using it in bed again.

We have an older hp laptop and it gets really hot anytime it is on.  Please keep us informed of your status.  We will be praying for you.

Since my laptop gets rather hot too I digged a bit deeper.
I found a thread in the HP Business Support Forums dealing with constantly operating fans.
The problem, at least with my model, was dust preventing proper ventilation.
So I removed the fan assembly (you can download the service manual from the HP web site) and cleaned it.
It worked. My laptop now stays cold AND quiet.

HTH
Oliver

Oliver, thanks for the info on the dust... I've had this laptop for awhile. I didn't use it that much, stayed in it's bag. Been using it this last week for work, the 17" screen comes in handy for looking at spreadsheets.

Talked to a lawyer, it would cost too much to file suit, and I'd have to prove the laptop is defective. I don't think it's defective, it just runs hot with the 2 processors it has (I checked, it does have 2 processors), too hot. Been this way since I got it.

Went back to the doc, he wanted to debride the burn... not fun. It is healing up, but slowly, and it's gonna leave a hell of a scar.  When I saw my doc yesterday, and he told me he saw on the news where 500,0000 Sony Viao's had been recalled due to them getting hot and burning people. One person got a second degree burn.

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We'll see how HP responds...

purpleydog wrote on Sep 6^th, 2008 at 12:43pm:

Went back to the doc, he wanted to debride the burn... not fun..

Whatever the hell that means dont sound fun, it sounds painfull, id rather be cut than burned.

Healing vibes on the way!  :)