MacBook Air with expanded battery

Don’t try this at home - but I did

Sep. 14, 2017 - Willem L. Middelkoop

Last night I had a nasty surprise: my original MacBook Air was swollen due to an exploded battery. I immediately had to take action, for reasons of safety and to preserve this piece of modern computer history. Don’t try this at home, but if you do... read along for some practical tips.

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Steve Jobs unveiling the MacBook Air in 2008 from a vanilla envelope

The damage to the battery pack is clearly visible

The MacBook is back alive, greeting me with its boot screen.

The keyboard and casing is deformed

Opening the MacBook Air is possible by removing the bottom lid.

Swollen and cracked. I carefully looked for any leaks.

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Articles (156)

2025-01-18 Master of Change
2024-12-19 Data versus Feeling
2024-12-09 The Problem With Bitcoin
2024-11-11 Write your own words
2024-11-10 Go Viral on X
2024-10-20 Marathon
2024-09-10 I see dead people
2024-05-11 Developing a native iOS app
2024-03-24 Half Marathon
2024-03-05 No, I Won't Build That!
2024-02-16 Vision Pro
2024-01-16 Health and fitness data
2023-12-15 Backup Rotation Scheme
2023-11-10 Apple Watch as Phone
2023-11-01 And... there is light!
2023-10-14 Giving AI Training
2023-10-13 Hello, stranger
2023-08-23 The Same, Differently
2023-05-31 Impact of training
2023-05-08 Tablet as Tool
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2023-04-20 Tips for Long-Distance Cycling
2023-04-05 Cutting Cloud Costs
2023-02-08 Back to the University
2022-12-22 Rolex DateJust 36
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2022-09-15 The Ultimate Freedom Bike
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2022-04-18 Snake '97 High Scores
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2019-09-27 Visiting an international hackers conference
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2019-08-18 Creating a minimal road bike
2019-07-16 Limitations of sleep tracking using a wearable
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2018-10-09 Using a budget Android as main smartphone
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2018-08-20 Google Analytics vs AWStats
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2018-06-09 Removing paint from a bike frame
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2018-05-09 Lunch by plane
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2018-04-18 Outside the comfort zone: amateur acting
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2018-03-07 Tablet as main computer
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