SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20200930-AD7C7-2147369468. Severity: No Incident, No Injury. Product: Surface Pro 4 Surface Pro 4 (Surface Pro 4 , with an i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of Storage). Incident: I recently began noticing yellowish-brownish areas on the left and right side of the display on my Surface Pro 4 device, predominately on the left side. This seemed to be heat related, since it occurred more, and the discolored area became larger, when the device was running hot, with the cooling fan constantly running at what appeared to be the maximum speed. Eventually, it was noticed that the left side of the display bulged out and became separated from the frame. I then began researching this further and filed a service request/case with Microsoft under the category/issue type drop down selection of "Lifted, separated, or bulging screen." After multiple back and forth communications with Microsoft as part of the service request/case and additional research in regards to this I came to understand that the "Lifted, separated, or bulging screen" is due to the battery expanding, which separated the display from the frame. Microsoft responded with a boiler plate response, which has contradictory language within it:� in one sentence they state there is �no inherent risk or safety concern associated with these expanded batteries� and then immediately follow it with �the lithium ion batteries used in Surface devices contain materials that can injure skin, eyes, and lungs if punctured� and �Surface devices with expanded batteries should not be connected to AC power as it could possibly lead to rupture;� which is not a misuse according to their labeling, i.e., you should be able to use the device while connected to AC power/a docking station (this is predominately how we use the