SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20241114-D17AB-2147335280. Severity: Incident, No Injury. Product: HP 8Y563UA (HP Dragonfly G4 Notebook computer). Incident: In mid-April 2024, I purchased an HP Dragonfly G4 notebook computer. It is used only by me, a retiree, for checking email and paying bills. From the day that I started using the computer, it was behaving very strangely. It would turn itself off randomly as if the power had dropped. Sometimes I had to wait 5-10 minutes to restart it. At night, I would shut it down, and would see the shutting down message on the screen. In the morning, I would find it on? I am the only person in the house and I knew I shut it down properly. Finally, in early October, the computer turned itself off and I could not restart it. I had used it for only five months on an occasional basis. The computer was still under warranty. I went back and forth with HP for about a month. I was unwilling to send the computer in for repair because there was my personal information on the hard drive. Since I could not turn it on, I couldnt remove / secure my information. I told HP I would send the computer in for repair if I could remove/keep the hard drive with my info on it. They agreed and send me a video. I previously worked on computers in my career. When I opened the cover, I could readily see that there was a thermal event, as evidenced by charring on the connection from the battery to the board. This could well as caused a fire or explosion in my home. I know from my professional experience that once this happens it is virtually impossible to repair the computer because other components of the computer are damaged and weakened. Often a technician cannot see or diagnose all the damage and the computer will