MacBook catches fire

Wow. Never seen that one before.

That's hot!

That looks like it's battery related - as it seems to be focussed around that area. That's also on the side of the battery where there aren't any contacts to the logic board, so it may be related to something on the logic board in that region too.

But judging by the amount of damage on the rear of the Macbook to the keyboard area, I'd lean towards the battery being at fault - maybe a cell has let go or something?

The main thing is you've managed to catch it before it did develop into something a lot more serious and life threatening.

That reminds me of our local newspaper reporter who was in my office for a story. He had an older MacBook with OS/9 on it I think. All of a sudden, flames started shooting out the side of it! Something happened to the HDD and it caught fire while he was using it. It left a burn mark on my desk too.

Was it running whilst sat on the couch? If it was, then it's possible the vent holes were blocked and that led to it overheating. If not, then it definitely looks like a faulty battery

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/rsolecki/steve_wozniak.html said:

After dropping out of the University of Colorado, Woz and his neighbor, Bill Fernandez, built a computer together in Fernandez's parents' garage. It burned up its power supply in a demonstration, but Woz wasn't fazed.

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Not the first time…