While cleaning the old adhesive from a peeling rubber foot on my HP EliteBook 830 G7, I accidentally pushed a needle into one of the openings in the bottom cover. A small amount of white smoke came out, and the fans immediately started running, so I set the laptop down. The puncture was on the side closest to me when the laptop is in its normal position. I'm not comfortable opening it myself and want to know how dangerous this could be and what I should do next.
4 Answers
For future laptop work, use a plastic spudger or another nonconductive plastic tool instead of a needle. Metal tools can short components or pierce the battery even when you’re only trying to remove adhesive.
The safest approach is to have a qualified technician remove the bottom cover and disconnect or replace the battery. Don’t keep charging it, don’t press on the area, and don’t try to confirm the damage by poking it again. If it becomes hot, swollen, begins smoking, or smells unusual, move people away and call emergency services rather than trying to extinguish a lithium-battery fire yourself.
Turn it off, unplug the charger, and don’t use it again until it’s inspected. The battery sits beneath much of the laptop’s bottom panel, so a needle could have damaged a lithium-ion cell. Keep the laptop away from anything flammable and avoid carrying it around unnecessarily. Tell a repair shop exactly what happened before they handle it so they can treat it as a potentially damaged battery.
A repair shop should be able to assess it, but warn them in advance that the battery may have been punctured. They may refuse to work on it until it’s made safe, which is reasonable. If the battery is damaged, it needs proper replacement and hazardous-battery disposal—not regular household trash.
The puncture was on the side closest to me, and I’m not confident opening the laptop without hurting myself. I’ll take it to a repair shop and explain what happened.