New Sony battery recall hits Dell, HP, more

Sony on Friday said it would back a voluntary recall begun by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission that asks customers to replace over 35,000 lithium-ion notebook batteries included in US systems from Dell, HP and Toshiba, as well as 65,000 worldwide. The Japanese PC builder believes that batteries using 2.15Ah cells made during a production transition between October 2004 and June 2005, as well as some with a change in raw material, carry the risk of overheating and catching fire. At least 40 incidents involving the batteries have surfaced, a small portion of which have resulted in burns and property damage.

About 32,000 of the US-only batteries stemmed from HP systems, including the Pavilion dv8000 (pictured), other dv models, and the Compaq budget brand. About 3,000 Toshiba Satellite and Tecra notebooks are affected, while about 150 batteries from entry-to-mid-range Inspiron and Latitude portables are also affected.

The recall should also affect certain Acer and Lenovo notebooks sold outside the US, one report indicates. Sony itself notes it hasn't used any of the cells that potentially cause problems.

Exchanges for safer batteries should be free from at least the US notebook manufacturers.

Sony's initiative follows a recent flaw with VAIO TZ batteries and draws similarities to a global recall of Sony batteries from 2006, when an inherent design flaw prompted recalls of millions of lithium-ion power packs that affected several mainstream notebook designers, including Apple. This latest recall isn't triggered by the same kind of technical issue, according to Sony.

Filed under: computers, industry, Apple
Other story tags: sony, Dell, HP, Toshiba, Acer, Lenovo, VAIO, Pavilion, Compaq