So, earlier this week I decided I was going to recommission my old laptop and put it into service as an experimental Linux box or something. I got it out of its box, got it charged up, booted it up made sure it ran fine. Unplugged it, went to bed, forgot about a few days until this morning, when I looked at my laptop and saw that it had doubled in size.
Upon closer inspection, it became apparent that it hadn't literally doubled in size, but it did appear to have been inflated, increasing its effective volume by a not-insubstantial amount. My initial assumption was correct, my laptop was indeed bigger than it ought to have been. So I unscrewed the bottom panel, the second-to-last screw made a 'pwang' sound as it released some tension, and exposed (literally and figuratively) the battery which had (literally) blown up, thereby making me suddenly very happy that there hadn't been a large fire at my place over the last few days.
Here lies she, got too fat and died on me
Looks like most of the damage is outward, so all the delicate components should still be fine. Try plugging it in without the battery (If it supports running from an outlet without a battery. Some do) and see if it still turns on.
That's the hope! Its got some screws that are too tiny even for my tiniest screwdriver, so I gotta hit up Ben Stiller for his set.
Y'know, the charger for the above laptop has literally the exact same problem with the insulation? Its effectively turned into sticky-tack. Not exactly reassuring.
I usually remove the batteries from my laptop since I'm always by a power outlet, sometimes I'll put the battery back for long trips.
Well that's terrifying. Just had to look at my old laptop to reassure myself it hadn't suffered a similar fate. And also the chunky, diskette-drived, Windows 98SE square screen museum piece in my top drawer (I am possibly a bit of a hoarder). Both fine.
But I have had an issue with my laptop's battery for the last couple of years where it thinks it's still plugged in when you unplug it and the only way to see how much life remains is to watch the slowly increasing "time until charged" meter.@F1ak3r: That is a dramatic, poetic death.
@Acid: I tried draining the battery today. At 6%, the screen brightness was fading in and out and the battery indicator flickered between charging and no battery. So that was quite dramatic. It even held on for a while at 0% and then I just shut it down out of frustration.