I had left my laptop (dell 600m) on standby for a few days running off
battery, so it was around 40% based on the little indicator they have
on the battery. I plugged in the AC to charge it and went off for
about 90min. I came back and the charging LED was blinking red, and
the battery was burning hot, way hotter than it ever was. So I
unplugged the AC adapter and put the system in Hibernate and removed
the battery to let it cool down. And I was afraid it'll either explode
or start burning up. It's cooled down now, but I was wondering what I
should do about it now. It's worked fine for the past 5 years or so? I
haven't plugged it back in yet. Just wondering what do you guys think
is wrong. Is the fail-safe on the battery effective? Sometimes it
doesn't work, right, and the battery either explodes or burns up?