HP x360 Spectre battery bulging and warping case

[grover1971]

About 5 months ago, I started noticing a lot of trouble with the spacebar on this laptop which I had purchased in early Aug 2018. At first the spacebar would not register hits with my thumb on the left or right side of the spacebar, but only if I hit it (hard) dead center.

This was annoying, and made typing hard, but I was able to live with it. Then about a month ago, I noticed that the trackpad felt like it was lifting up - it became impossible to get a click to register on the trackpad. It was around the same time I noticed that the base cover was separating from the top cover at the sides, not by just a small amount, but by about 0.5 cm. I also noticed that the laptop would no longer sit flat.

As I began to search Google for what could possibly be wrong, I noticed that there is a common problem with these laptops that the Lithium Ion Battery can start to bulge and from pictures people posted online, I realized this was exactly what was happening. The expanding battery was warping the top surface and making the space bar difficult to use, also raising the trackpad and pushing the base cover away from the top cover.

Fearing that the battery might catch fire/explode due to it getting so swollen in just a few months, I followed this link to remove the base cover (I have the 15 inch model, but process is the same) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5PX2yDkRp0, and then this to remove the battery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H179uEph-A

The battery was clearly swollen and needs replacement, which is crazy considering it is less than 2 years old.

With the high price paid for this new laptop less than 2 years ago, this is totally unacceptable, and points to some kind of manufacturing or engineering defects with these batteries. Is this battery one of the ones on the recall list here? https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2019/hp-expands-recall-of-batteries-for-notebook-computers-and-mobile-w...

I do see the x360 listed there, but seems to be a different model?

I'd like to know my options for getting a replacement battery - as I'm only able to run my laptop plugged in since the battery has been removed, and this is a huge inconvenience to power down every time I need to move rooms or attend business meetings.

Thanks!

[grover1971]

Adding image of swollen battery again, as it appears to not be showing in the post above anymore.

[grover1971]

I see other users posted pictures of the incidents, for some reason whenever I upload a picture of the swollen battery - it gets flagged and removed? Maybe someone from HP can explain how I can post a pic of the swollen battery so other users can see if they are experiencing a similar issue?

Also, is there anyone from HP available to reply to the original problem statement?

Thanks

[asmita6658]

Hi @grover1971

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[SharkyCA]

It seems HP doesn't want pictures of swollen batteries on this forum, I had the same problem on a different post re-swollen battery! Pictures deleted!