WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools officials say they are pulling all 20,000 2015 model Chromebooks from use after one of the laptops began to smolder while a student was using it.
So far it's just one chromebook at one school in Winston-Salem Forsyth County that's been reported with these kinds of problems. But 2 Wants To Know found we're not the first area of the country to have issues.
A quick google search of "HP Chromebook smoke" takes you to a message board on the HP help website where five other people from across the country are reporting similar problems.
And in a Youtube video a woman who says her HP Chromebook is so hot, it started melting.
We’ve reached out to HP multiple times Wednesday, but we're still waiting to hear back. We do want to point out that other brands have also reported problems.
In Amarillo, Texas school district leaders said three Acer Chromebook also caught fire. And Apple has had a recall due to fire hazzard concerns.
2 Wants To Know asked our tech expert here at the station how to protect your computer. He says there's one simple step you can take tonight: look at the battery.
"One of the early warning signs for a computer and or battery going bad is the swelling," Kevin Lipford said. "Kinda press on it a little bit and it kinda dips down, you can feel like there's pressure or a bubble in there. That means they are going bad."
If your battery is going bad, he says try replacing it first. If that doesn't work and it goes bad again in a few weeks, then take your computer to a expert.
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