Bloated battery

Simba7 wrote:

 

This should still be under warranty, so what should I do?

Open a support case, maybe??

http://support.wdc.com/country/index.asp?lang=en

Simba7 wrote:

Well, I went to check on my Passport Wireless and noticed the lid completely came off. Inside, a VERY bloated fully-charged battery pack.

 

This should still be under warranty, so what should I do?

Can you take a Photo of it and post it here … i would very much like to see it

The first pic was last night. The second pic above was this morning. The lid popped off completely.

Also, when the lid popped off, the metal lid for the SD card came off and touched an area of the mainboard. Now it will not turn on, but the battery status light stays on all the time.

This unit is ~6mo old (bought it new back in February on Rakuten) so it’s a bit odd for this to happen.

Apparently you still have it powered.  Haven’t you heard of the many lithium batteries that have exploded and caught fire?  Turn it completely off and un-powered if it still is. Worry about the warranty later.

mike27oct wrote:

Apparently you still have it powered.  Haven’t you heard of the many lithium batteries that have exploded and caught fire?  Turn it completely off and un-powered if it still is. Worry about the warranty later.

Except it will not turn off, so I left it running until the battery died. Failed LiPo batteries are more dangerous when fully charged.

They still burst… eventually… but hopefully it will not catch fire while being shipped for RMA.

Good point, and I hope by now it is discharged.

Not so sure it is a good idea to ship it to WD; maybe sending back the unit without battery is better and you dispose of battery properly.  WD definitely owes you a replacement unit wether you bought it new or used.

This happened to my passport Wireless 2tb too, exactly as in your photo.

Purchased Feburary this year too, just 6 months old.

Battery faulty for this lot?

Sent to service center and waiting for replacement.

Did you keep your MPW charged or did you allow its battery to completly discharge a few times within the 6 months before failure?

Simba7 wrote:

Well, I went to check on my Passport Wireless and noticed the lid completely came off. Inside, a VERY bloated fully-charged battery pack.

 

This should still be under warranty, so what should I do?

I kept it charged. I haven’t had issues with the second one, which I haven’t left plugged in.

Must have been a bad batch of batteries.

This was the one thing I worried about with this drive. Its like the iPhone,  a sealed unit. 

What happens when the battery fails.

I hope the important people at WD are reading this. I would be seriously hissitant to buy an portable wireless drive where the baattery was sealed in.  A previous Nokia phone I had had it’s battery changed 5 times before the phone fullly died.

Here the bettary dictates the life of the unit. :frowning:

In the latest firmware, out recently, WD changed the battery charging profile. Perhaps to address this issue.

The MPW is quite serviceable if you have the skills. It can be opened, and if you can find a suitable replacement, the battery can be changed,

Well, the MPW that was photographed with it’s top popped off by the bloated battery is of good use. We all know where the clips are holding the top of the case down and what sort of clips they are. It looks like taking the top off is going to break some of those clips so once opened there may be a requirement to use cellotape to keep the lid down.

It looks like it’s been manufactured so it would need a new cover if opened.

I will continue to state that it’s a bad design with the battery in the case and would this have ben a battery speficically manufactured for this purpose or maybe it is something that can be purchased.  I but not one-off purchases.

What I want to know is which intellectual ■■■■■ made the decision to design the MPW so the battery is not a user replacable part.

Well I did say “if you have the skills” it was quite serviceable.

If you don’t have the skills, which is apparently the case given your posts, and you are concerned about the battery being internal, don’t buy one of these drives.

Personally I think it is a brilliant design, even if not quite perfectly executed. So I think you will be hard pressed to find an "intellectual ■■■■■’ involved in the design. It really doesn’t help to start insulting people either. Particularly people who don’t read these posts, and when you don’t know the design brief for the MPW.

FYI, the tabs are broken in the picture because the top was forced open. With the correct tools designed for opening such devices the tabs would not be broken. Such tools are found in many kits available to end users, such as this one: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Opening-Repair-Tool-Kit-Pentalobe-Torx-Phillips-Screwdriver-for-iPhone-4-4s-5-5s-/171458757667?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

A case could have been designed to use a fully enclosed battery, which would have been custom made to requirements, like the original small Nokia batteries. WD could even have designed it to accept spare batteries to swap over, extending the useable life of the unit in the field. But that can be done now using an external battery and the USB port. So yes, a user replaceable battery design could have been done, but it would be more complex, and make the MPW more costly.

There is a huge range of batteries available out of China these days. I would be surprised if a replacement third party battery could not be found for it. Or WD may make them available at some stage.

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Firstly, apologies for the “educated ■■■■■” comment. That’s out of my own frustration. The idea and design of the MyPassport Wireless is awesome. It’s the design of the case and the inability for ther average user to be able to order a replacement battery from Western Digital when the one that’s in there finally gives up the ghost.

As to the pictures presenter by the person with the problem, it’s actually the battery that’s forced the case open as it started to become fat.

I’m quite competent at getting into these sort of cases and disconnecting and reconnnecting stuff. I’m just trying to walk in the shoes of people who don’t.

Interestingly, in the UK there is a consumer law where if the item purchases fails on a part that should last then the UK citizen has up to 6 years to get the problem solved.  The time limit is 5 years if in Scotland.

Thanks for that link. :wink:

its better only the batterey, im not make modification or anything with my passport but,… my passport blow up by self

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Sorry, Roderick, but you’re condescending and misinformed. The tabs were broken because they were forced, but not by the user. They were broken when the battery inflated. I know, because it happened to me, too.

I rest my case. The battery should be a user-replaceable part.