CompuWorld

Worldwide laptop sales are expected to surpass desktop sales by 2009, reaching the figure of 150 million. Studies show that most laptop buyers keep their hardware around for only about three years, before discarding it and buying a new one (excluding me). Here is how laptop designers plan to make laptops more eco-friendly across their entire life span, from the producer to the recycling plant.

Problem 1: Case made from plastic, plastic made from oil
Solution: Make cases from bioplastics, plant-based polymers, as this method requires less oil and energy to produce than traditional plastics do. Fujitsu made a prototype laptop with a half natural, half conventional case and now it is testing a plastic that has up to 80% bio-content.

Problem 2: Thrown away laptops go to lanfills
Solution: Upgrade your old laptop, do not buy a new one, and discard it after a few years. Soon it may be easier and cheaper to upgrade components in your laptop than completely replace it (producers should support this movement). Asus recently released a laptop that lets users upgrade most of core components like processor, video card, memory and hard drive, by simply removing one panel.

Problem 3: Power draining displays
Solution: Build laptops that use the much newer OLED( organic light-emitting diodes) technology that need only a fraction of the power used by the traditional LCD displays, as they have no backlighting.

Problem 4: Using power from the grid
Solution: Use portable solar chargers, as they already exists. The MSI Computer company developed a laptop with photovoltaic cells integrated directly into its case.

Problem 5: Laptops contain some toxic materials
Solution: Last year, the European Union enacted legal limits on toxins in electronics sold, where the U.S. introduced a similar rating system for computers.

Problem 6: Short lived hard drives
Solution: Switch to flash memories as it has no parts in motion, uses less power and it is faster. Dell produced a laptop with a 32GB solid state drive this year and Samsung appreciates that solid state drives will hold 30 times more data than they do now.

It sounds too good to be true, but the Human Resources Development ministry in India is trying to get engineers to devise a $10 laptop.

So far, the ministry is looking at two different designs: one from an engineering student at the Vellore Institute of Technology and another from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, according to the Times of India. (The Institute of Science, by the way, is not the colleges that are part of the Indian Institute of Technology. The Institute of Science is a grad school. Out of over 100,000 annual applications, it takes about 350.)

So far, one of the laptops, even after factoring in labor charges, costs about $47.

The cost is encouraging and we are hopeful it would come down to $10. We would also look into the possibility of some Indian company manufacturing the parts,? an official said.

Even though labor is cheap in India, getting a laptop to this level will be tough. A laptop is made from components, after all, which have to be made in factories. The $100 laptop from Nicholas Negroponte has ballooned up to $175. These laptops will be made on a single board. And most likely, it will be made with old, discarded component. You and I may not want them, but a lot of old components are pretty good. A 1GHz processor is considered out-of-date these days.

The Sony laptop battery fiasco of 2006 is stepping into 2007, as Acer has announced a recall of certain notebook computer lithium-ion batteries containing Sony-made cells. About 27,000 cells are affected, and Acer is recommending that applicable consumers should only use the notebook computer using AC power until a replacement battery pack is received.

Laptops containing the affected batteries are in the TravelMate and Aspire series with model numbers starting with 242, 320, 321, 330, 422, 467, 561, C20, 556, 560, 567, 930, 941 and 980. These laptops were sold in the U.S. and Canada between May 2004 and November 2006. A special Web site has been set up for owners of Acer laptops to compare their serial numbers with those in the affected range.

Over 10 million lithium ion laptop batteries have been recalled worldwide since last year. A long list of computer manufacturers has felt the effects of the defective batteries, including Sony, Dell, Apple, Lenovo and Toshiba.

In the interest and concern of consumers, the IEEE announced last November that it will revise its laptop battery standards to improve overall performance while make systems more reliable. Meanwhile, battery engineers are hard at work to develop new, safer battery technologies. Panasonic is now producing laptops with an improved lithium ion battery technology that safeguards against overheating.

While nearly all notebook computers on the market today use lithium, Apple started shipping lithium polymer batteries with several of its MacBooks as of late October. Lithium polymer batteries are already being widely used today in some newer models of PDAs and cell phones.

Related:
Your Laptop Might Blow Up

Here you are. Just when it looked to have ended up, Lenovo announces that it is recalling 100,000 batteries. The batteries are actually manufactured from Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., of Japan.

Lenovo has received four reports of batteries overheating and damaging the notebook. This caused damage to the notebook computers, minor property damage and, in one case, minor eye irritation to one consumer.

Lenovo sold these extended-life batteries with new ThinkPad notebook PCs or as optional or replacement batteries for the following ThinkPad notebook models: R Series (R60 and R60e), T Series (T60 and T60p) and Z Series (Z60m, Z61e, Z61m, and Z61p). The recalled 9-cell batteries have the following part number, which can be found on the battery label: FRU P/N 92P1131.

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the recalled batteries and contact Lenovo for additional information and to receive a free replacement battery. Consumers should use only ThinkPad batteries obtained from either Lenovo or an authorized reseller.

Consumer Contact: Customers should contact Lenovo at (800) 426-7378 anytime, or log on to http://www.lenovo.com/batteryprogram to determine if the battery is part of the recall and to order a replacement battery.

Related: Your Laptop Might Blow Up.

Do you have a laptop? Have you heard about the millions of lithium ion batteries that are being recalled worldwide? If not, you need to get your act together - and fast! Incidents of laptop going up in flames are not isolated to western world only.

What actually is making these lithium ion batteries leak, overheat, or cumbost? Mostly short circuits - the battery heats up and bursts into flames, or melts causing a lot of damage. A lithium ion battery typically contains several cells. These cells are insulated from each other using separators; a short circuit usually happens when a separator fails. With newer gadgets that are more power hungry, the trend is to manufacture smaller yet more powerful batteries - but that is done by decreasing the thickness of separators. That is why there is always a warning on lithium ion batteries about never throwing them in fire or puncturing them.

So who all have joined the battery recall bandwagon? Dell tops the list with 42 lakh batteries recalled. Then comes apple with 18 lakh recalls, Toshiba with 8.3 lakh, IBM/Lenovo with 5.26 lakh, Fujitsu with 2.87 lakh units, Hitachi with 16,000 units and HP with 15,700 units. Sony manufactured most of the batteries and they have there own recall as well; but the number of units to be recalled is not clear. If you have a laptop manufactured with any of these big names, you need to logon to there website, go to the support area and look around for the battery replacement program. You will need to check/enter the serial number and they will tell you whether you laptop battery is 'at risk'. Better safe than sorry!

TIP:

Are you really at blame if your laptop battery spontaneously combusts? Firstly, always buy original. Spurious and aftermarket batteries can blow up your laptop faster than you can say 'Worldwide battery recalls'. Secondly, it is best to always switch of your laptop rather than leave it on stand by or hibernate. Thirdly, treat your battery with care - do not keep charging a lithium ion battery before it is discharged. Ideally you should completely drain your battery before a charge. And lastly, remove the battery when you are not going to use the laptop for long periods (over a month).

Related: Lenovo Recalls Laptop Battries.