In the vein of "this is a feature not a bug," perhaps this is the new hybrid battery/internal combustion Dell laptop? Those aftermarket exhaust systems can really wreak havoc on the internal combustion component!

Must be Apple's fault.

RIAA must'a found "illegal" mp3's again and remotely deleted them.

This doesn't surprise me at all. My work laptop, a Dell m70, doesn't like to go to sleep when the docking station button is pressed. The result is that I pop it out of the dock, think it's shut down and put it in the bag. An hour later at home, I go to remove it and I need an oven mitt. One would think that there'd be some sort of thermometer to shut it down if the temp exceeded some preset limit. But hey, what do I know?

The burned out Dell in that pic looks like its my same model, a Lattitude D800. Yikes! And here I always thought it would be the power cord that always wears down and exposes wires after the warranty expires that would cause a fire!

You know what's going to happen... some at the FAA is going to hear about "laptops exploding" and then try to ban laptops in the cabin.

This is what happens when you purchase your equipment from a Mission Impossible agent's yard sale.

dirk: well, what if one does "explode" and you have to put up with the re-circulated burned plastic smell for a few hours?

I can see a small market in Nomex fireproof laptop bags.

Damn, you can almost see the product key... What a smell that must leave behind. I had an old ProView monitor blow up on me a few years back.. the glass cracked but didn't shatter and fly at me (luckily) but the smell lingered for hours.. ugh.. Burnt electronics smell like eggs and ass crack.

On the bright side, geeks can now participate in the War on Terror by using their laptops as grenades... "Suck Inspiron Osama!"

*Trying not to make any sudden movements, she shifts her Dell Insprion 1150 off of her lap and onto a nearby coffee table*

Maybe it's intended to function as a heat source. Now I can roast marshmallows while I'm reading the news! Hell, yes!

Negotiator -

A recently purchased Dell laptop I have.. (can't recall the model) does indeed have that feature. I have booted the laptop to a warning screen telling me that the computer shut down due to extreme heat.

Tomasland: Thanks for the info. I don't know whether to be grateful or frightened. If that feature exists, then, you'd think they could figure out that it went from dock to nothing ... and never get even warm in the first place. Oh well.

"That's hot!" as Paris Hilton would say.

For all you Dell Laptop owners, all I can say is "You got a Dell Dude!" :)

i'll hold you. tell me..have you ever been to a turkish prison before?

you know the mac had problems with some of their crap, and that i understand...its just, ya know the saying "one in a million" well this is kinda it. you make enough of anything, and no matter what you do once in a while a product will roll of the shipping line that just wasnt made quiet right. also sometimes people are idiots and leave things in the perfect situation to get totally trashed.

ouch!

Upirons: Actually looks more like a Latitude D600 -- the D800 has a wider frame around the keyboard.