Days after Acer Australia announced a recall of its notebooks because of overheating problems, the company in Europe has got into a spat with a university professor and her husband after their daughter’s Acer TravelMate 2400 notebook burst into flames.Acer claims that the notebook, which inexplicably ‘caught fire’, was affected by an external “direct heat source”, and was the fault of the owner and not Acer.
This is despite Acer issuing recall notices for its notebooks.
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| A gaping hole in an Acer 2400 TravelMate notebook. |
Andrew Whitehead, the father of the woman whose notebook burst into flames, claims that, “There was no other electrical appliance switched on in the room or indeed anything else which could have caused a fire, such as a candle or cigarette,” he told PC Pro Magazine in the UK.
“To our horror we saw the right-hand corner of the laptop screen turning black and the smell [of burning] increasing. I touched the circle of black and burnt my fingers. The silver on the lid of the laptop started turning brown and the silver surface began flaking with smoke coming out of it.”
Whitehead claimed that he was rankled by what he perceived to be a suggestion by Acer that he “was lying in order to get a new laptop”.
“My daughter is being honest; she had her mother (a university professor) next to her, and her husband, also a university professor in the same room as witnesses. Whilst the incident may be classed as inexplicable by Acer, it is inconceivable that this story has been made up,” said Whitehead.
Acer has still not commented on the issue.
In Australia, Acer has issued a voluntary safety recall of its Acer Aspire notebooks that may overheat under specific conditions.
Last month Acer Australia issued a Voluntary Safety Recall because of an overheating issue for Acer Aspire models AS3410, AS3810T, AS3810TG, AS3810TZ and AS3810TZG manufactured prior to 15 September, 2009.
“In the affected units, the microphone cable may overheat when extreme pressure is applied repeatedly to the left palm rest. As a result, the unit case may become deformed and the system may malfunction,” says Acer.
The company has now voluntarily instituted a safety recall program to replace the microphone cable in the affected units to eliminate any risk of overheating.
