this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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I mean... I'm almost glad they haven't figured out the power settings. Imagine if they were all running around with the lids closed and the laptops stuffed into a backpack? It would be a fire waiting to happen.
You're saying it like it's a bad thing.
Why should I have to die in a plane crash because some idiot vibe coder's laptop overheated and caught fire during the flight? So yes, it is a bad thing.
"Fires on airplanes" is, in general, a BAD THING.
Idk depends on the airplane at this point.
best case scenario you spew a bunch of toxic shit into the already stressed atmosphere.
Surely the CPU would force an instant shutdown if it detected dangerously high temperatures?
I was thinking more about the batteries. It's probably not as big of a deal with such small batteries, but lithium ion batts can enter an "uncontrollable, self-heating state" called thermal runaway. https://ul.org/research-updates/what-is-thermal-runaway/
Yes, but our gear should have sensors that know when thermal transfer is sustainably going to impact the batteries.
They do, but It's sort of like what happens when you take a hot steak off the pan. The extrernal heat source is removed, but the steak has enough internal heat to continue cooking for a bit while it rests. Your laptop might shut down, but the whole thing being in a backpack would act as an insulator and allow it to continue heating.
yes you are right and everyone else is a little uneducated for thinking this could actually be a fire risk
You sound fun at parties. Circular firing squad, much?
Fwiw, several generations of Windows notebooks have suffered from nasty sleep bugs where they wake themselves up from sleep, and drain their batteries while clamshelled in a book bag. Used to happen with my work Dells almost monthly. Microsoft's announced win11 fix for it is one of the loudest and most venerated I've heard, in living memory.
Best I ever got out of the deal was a spicy pillow, no breach, and I've been unable to find any articles about any rash of laptop explosions which would have had very high visibility.
It sounds like you have also been as lucky as I have. May we all hope to escape the fires, a little longer.
Right, and this is just waking to run updates or whatever. Imagine what running a local LLM in the same conditions might do.
kek. okay tell that to all the electric vehicle owners who've burned to death in random car fires cause by their batteries igniting themselves. also maybe educate yourself a little and read the underwriters lab article I posted.