The batteries from a batch of the notebooks issued in 2016, the HP ZBook Studio G3, fail to meet the quality requirements. In the worst case they may become hot and catch fire. For this reason approximately 1600 students were sent an email by ICT Services Student requesting them to have the battery replaced. So far around one thousand students have made appointments. The others can still drop in without an appointment at the desk, which consists of a few tables in front of the desk of Education and Student Affairs in MetaForum.

Notebook coordinator Peet van Leeuwen advises all students alerted to take action. “Of course, HP  would prefer all batteries to be replaced, and we are trying to accommodate all the owners of the notebooks with this service at TU/e. If there should be any students or former students who cannot drop in for the battery switch at the moment, another solution will have to be found for them.”

ICT Services Student has only mailed those students who have potentially problematic notebooks. “HP has given us a list stating the serial numbers of notebooks that do not meet the quality requirements. We have managed to match this list with our students. So if students have not been sent an email, the batteries in their notebooks should be reliable”, says Van Leeuwen.

Battery does warm up

Today will be the tenth day when mechanics from Scholten Awater, the supplier of the TU/e notebooks, will receive students with their ZBooks Studio G3. They check the serial numbers of the laptop and the batteries. Within a very short span, which Bart van den Heuvel himself has timed at five minutes, the flat black battery is replaced.

Fontys student Stefan van Nieuwenhoven has come to the desk without a prior appointment. He received his Zbook in the last academic year when he studied Mechanical Engineering at TU/e. Although he cannot remember having received the mail, he was warned by friends. “I don’t want my battery to catch fire. When I am running heavy programs for my study or for games, the battery actually does warm up. When I run Matlab it even becomes hot. Very nice that it is solved so quickly and smoothly here.”

If necessary, the ICT Services Student will also set up a desk after next week.” We expect that there will be mechanics at TU/e again at the end of January to accommodate the students who have not made appointments the first time round or who have not shown up. When and how we are going to organize that is something we’ll decide after Friday, when we have a clear insight into the number of batteries that still needs to be replaced.