About notebook-use batteries, including the reports about the battery recalls.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard, yesterday announced a voluntary recall of Lithium-Ion batteries used in select HP and Compaq laptops.
The recall includes around 70,000 units that can potentially overheat, “posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers”.
New laptop batteries, based on the latest Boston Power’s Sonata technology, are available now as accessories for 18 existing Hewlett-Packard notebook models.
Sonata Li-ion cells in the HP Enviro Series batteries are claimed to deliver sustainable performance for three years, which is “three times longer than most other notebook computer batteries”. HP is providing a three-year warranty on the batteries. In addition, the batteries are Ecolabel-certified.
The extended 6-cell battery for the HP Mini 1000 netbook is now available for purchase.
The Lithium-Polymer battery (FZ332AA#ABB) is priced at $95.99, when sold separately.
Hewlett-Packard has announced that its HP EliteBook 6930p laptop with optional ultra-capacity battery and solid state drive delivers up to 24 hours of continuous operation on a single battery charge.
“Designed and tested to last, HP batteries benefit from a combination of HP engineering and energy-efficient notebook components such as Intel solid-state hard drives (SSD) and mercury-free LED displays. For example, the highly efficient HP Illumi-Lite LED display boosts battery run time by up to 4 hours compared to traditional LCD displays, while the Intel SSD provides up to a 7 percent increase in battery life compared to traditional hard drives,” HP says.
Notebook computer industry is affected by a shortage of laptop batteries, partly because of a recent fire at a plant of LG Chem, the second biggest South Korean battery cell maker, Reuters reports.
The fire at the major battery supplier has caused an increase of battery prices, Dell Inc. said adding that it works with other suppliers to limit the price growth.
Airline passengers are no longer allowed to pack loose lithium ion batteries in checked luggage. Instead, passengers are required to take loose batteries with them in carry-on baggage, according to a new regulation, which took effect on January 1st, 2008.
Li-ion batteries in carry-on baggage must be packed in plastic bags. However, the regulation won’t apply to lithium batteries that are already installed in electronic devices, such as laptops, MP3 players and others.
Betavoltaic batteries, which could enable notebook computers to operate for 30 years without a single recharge, are planed to hit the market in about 2 to 3 years, Next Energy News reports.
“The breakthrough betavoltaic power cells are constructed from semiconductors and use radioisotopes as the energy source. As the radioactive material decays it emits beta particles that transform into electric power capable of fueling an electrical device like a laptop for years,” the report says.
UltraCell Corporation, a producer of reformed methanol fuel cells (RMFCs) for mobile power applications, has announced its XX25 fuel cell meets the power source specifications for the Getac V100 rugged Tablet PC. The fuel cell is claimed to provide the V100 with 12-18 hours of continuous work between charges, which is up from 6 hours with the notebook’s standard 6-cell battery.
The XX25 fuel cell weighs around 2.73 pounds and plugs into the same port as the V100′s power adapter.
Toshiba recalled today about 5,100 laptop batteries, sold with its Dynabook, Dynabook Satellite, Satellite, and Tecra notebooks in Japan, the U.S., Europe, Australia, and China.
According to Toshiba’s representative, there were three cases in which these batteries caught fire – two in Japan and one in Australia. However, there were no injuries.
Toshiba Corporation today unveiled that one of its notebook computers with a Sony battery pack recently caught fire, and announced the additional measures to encourage customer participation in the global Sony battery packs replacement program, which started last year.
“On May 24, 2007, a Toshiba portable computer with a Sony battery pack caught fire. Toshiba immediately asked Sony to investigate. The investigation confirmed that the cause of the fire was the battery pack, as in other incidents reported earlier,†the Company’s press release says.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) today announced a recall of the notebook batteries used in some of Gateway 400VTX and 450ROG series notebooks, because of overheating problems.
These batteries could pose a fire hazard to consumers, which are advised to stop using recalled products immediately and contact Gateway regarding battery replacement. Gateway has received four reports of battery packs overheating, including minor property damage, but no injuries have been reported.
Apple has released Battery Update 1.2 for MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops. The patch “updates battery firmware and improves battery functionality” and is released after the company discovered that some batteries used in its notebooks may have battery performance issues. However, if the affected batteries do not work properly after the installed Update, Apple will replace these batteries free of charge.
The factors causing the performance issues do not present a safety risk, so users may continue to use current batteries, according to Apple.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Acer America Corporation, today announced a voluntary program for the replacement of certain notebook computer lithium-ion batteries containing Sony-made cells.
“As announced previously by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there have been 16 reports of notebook batteries overheating. These reports were associated with earlier recalls by other notebook computer manufacturers of batteries containing these Sony cells. These previous reports involved only minor property damage and two minor burns. None of these reports involved batteries in Acer notebook computers,” Acer published.
United States Patent and Trademark Office recently issued two broad patents for fundamental fuel cell technology to PolyFuel, Inc. The patented technology includes fuel cells’ membranes, which resemble flexible sheets of cellophane. These membranes are the core of the “critical technology behind portable fuel cells, and to a large degree dictate their size, cost, power and efficiency”, according to PolyFuel.
“Such ‘micro power’ fuel cells are widely expected to begin supplanting batteries as the primary power source when extended runtimes are desired for increasingly power-hungry portable electronic devices such as laptop computers, PDAs, and smart phones,” PolyFuel says.
Gigabyte Technologies has announced that it will introduce the notebooks with dual graphics system, the eight-hour laptop batteries and Santa Rosa platform-based notebooks at forthcoming CeBIT 2007 show.
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