Archive for the 'Laptop Batteries' Category

Sony today announced the recall of the additional 250,000 Vaio laptop batteries worldwide, after the company recalled 90,000 Vaio battery units in the Asia Pacific.

In the United States, the affected Sony Vaio batteries were sold from December 2004 through October 2006. In the Vaio FE series, the recalled batteries were sold with Vaio VGN-FE550G and VGN-FE570G notebooks. In T series, Sony recalled battery units sold with VGN-T240P, VGN-T250, VGN-T250P, VGN-T260P, VGN-T270P, VGN-T340P, VGN-T350, VGN-T350P, VGN-T360P, VGN-T370P laptops. It is possible that some of the affected batteries were sold separately.

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A voluntary recall of 340,000 laptop batteries made by Sony was officially announced in the United States today. The latest-recalled lithium ion batteries containing Sony cells were used in Fujitsu’s, Gateway’s, Sony’s, and Toshiba’s notebook computers. These lithium ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published.

According to the CPSC’s press release, consumers should stop using the recalled batteries immediately unless otherwise instructed.

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Gateway announced today a voluntary recall of approximately 35,000 notebook-use lithium ion batteries containing battery cells manufactured by Sony.

“Under very rare circumstances, these batteries can overheat and create a potential fire hazard. While Gateway has not identified any failures of this type in Gateway systems using the recalled batteries, the company is cooperating with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Sony to act in the interest of customer safety”, Gateway published.

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Sony Japan has announced the Vaio laptop battery recall. The recalled batteries are sold in laptops or on their own in the Asia Pacific region. Sony today asked anyone who owns a VGP-BPS2B or VGP-BPS3A battery pack to return the unit to the company. There is no info about Vaio battery replacement program in the United States, but it is reported that other Sony subsidiaries have yet to announce recalls of their own.

Sony Japan said it expects to replace around 90,000 batteries in the Asia Pacific. The recall only applies to certain battery-pack serial numbers.

Japanese newspaper the Nihon Keizai Shimbun today put the total at 300,000 Vaio batteries to be recalled worldwide.

Sony begins Vaio battery recall | Reg Hardware

Fujitsu announced today a worldwide recall of an additional 51,000 Sony-made laptop batteries, after it recalled 287,000 battery units last week.

It is reported that recalled batteries are used in three Fujitsu’s Japanese notebook models and nine models sold outside Japan.

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A worldwide recall of about 8 million laptop batteries using lithium-ion cells made by Sony creates a battery shortage that’s driving up prices and causes delays in shipments, Bloomberg.com reports according to executives from Taiwanese manufacturers.

The notebook battery shortage may last until next June and customers are waiting an extra two months for shipments, said managers at manufacturers which make battery packs from cells supplied by companies such as Sony, Sanyo and others.

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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) released the tips on laptop computer use, after recent fire incidents with notebooks involved and massive battery recalls.

To promote safe use of notebook computers, batteries and chargers, CPSC advised not to use incompatible computer batteries and chargers.

Also, do not use your computer on your lap, because laptop batteries can get hot during normal use.

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HP will not recall Sony-made batteries used in its laptops. The company believes it is safe to use those batteries because it reviewed and rejected Sony battery parts for nearly a year before buying any. Also, no overheating problems have been reported, USA Today reports according to HP spokesman Mike Hockey.

Although HP can’t say for sure, since it doesn’t have all the information from Sony, it believes the batteries, which can overheat and catch fire, were among those that did not meet its quality standards.

About 1 million to 2 million HP notebooks currently have the Sony batteries, the report says.

HP not recalling Sony battery parts – Yahoo! News

Acer is in talks with Sony over joining its voluntary laptop battery replacement program. It is reported that Acer has not received any complaints from users over notebook overheating or catching fire. “Previously, we believed there were no problems with our batteries, but now we’re in discussions with Sony, just to make sure,” said Stella Chou, an Acer representative in Taipei.

Acer is one of the world’s largest PC vendors. It makes well-known TravelMate and Aspire notebooks.

Acer talking to Sony about battery recall News – PC Advisor

Fujitsu on Friday offered replacements for certain Sony-made batteries used in Fujitsu’s notebooks. It was reported that the recalled batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard. The affected batteries are used in Fujitsu’s LifeBook laptops which were sold outside Japan, as same as in Japanese FMV-Biblo Loox notebooks.

The affected batteries are used in LIFEBOOK P1510 and P7120, LIFEBOOK S7020, S7020D, S7025 and S7025D and LIFEBOOK C1320, C1320D and C1410. Also, FMV-BIBLO LOOX P70R, P70S, FMV-BIBLO LOOX T50M, T50R, T50RN, T50S, T50SN, FMV-BIBLO LOOX T70M, T70M/T, T70MN, T70R, T70R/T, T70RN, T70S, T70S/V, T70SN and FMV-P8210 use recalled Sony batteries.

Update: Fujitsu Ltd. said on Wednesday that the number of recalled batteries will be 287,000.

According to Fujitsu, there isn’t any battery pack problem involving Fujitsu notebook PCs similar to those that have been announced recently by Dell and Apple Computer.

Fujitsu Computer Systems News Press Releases

Dell announced today that it has increased the number of battery packs containing cells manufactured by Sony, from 4.1 million units, recalled in August, to approximately 4.2 million units.

According to the reports, those additional 100,000 laptop batteries can short-circuit and have been blamed for causing battery overheating.

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Toshiba widens its laptop battery recall to 830,000 batteries, after recalled 340,000 notebook batteries worldwide on September 19, Reuters reported. Toshiba said that recall could affect customers of the Satellite A100, A105, M50, M55, M100 and M105 laptops, as well as the Toshiba Tecra A6 and Tecra A7 notebooks. Only computers purchased between March and May of 2006 are affected. The recalled batteries do not overheat, or pose any safety related issue or concern, the Toshiba laptop battery recall page says.

The affected batteries simply stop working, i.e. they stop accepting a charge, and they no longer supply power to the computer, according to the Toshiba.

Toshiba is offering to replace affected batteries with new batteries, free of charge. The company will replace affected batteries whether or not they have actually failed, with the intention that as few customers as possible will ever experience the problem”, the recall page says.

There is no information how many recalled batteries are sold in the United States.

Toshiba Laptop Battery Recall Page

Sony will initiate a global replacement program (recall) for certain laptop battery packs that utilize Sony-made lithium ion cells used by notebook computer manufacturers, because of recent over-heating incidents. According to Sony’s press release, the company is discussing this plan with the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.

“Sony has been supporting the recall of battery packs for Dell and Apple. On rare occasions, microscopic metal particles in the recalled battery cells may come into contact with other parts of the battery cell, leading to a possibility of short circuit within the cell. A battery pack will simply power off when a cell short circuit occurs, but under certain rare conditions an internal short circuit may lead to cell overheating and potentially flames. The potential for this to occur can be affected by variations in the system configurations found in different notebook computers. Sony believes that this engineering analysis remains valid”, the press release says.

Sony will announce details of the program in the near future.

Sony Global – Press Release – Sony to Initiate Global Replacement Program for Notebook Computer Battery Pack

Lenovo and IBM, in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced the voluntary recall of approximately 526,000 ThinkPad laptop lithium-ion batteries worldwide, of which 168,500 in the United States. The batteries are manufactured by Sony. Lenovo offers free-of-charge replacement batteries for all recalled units. Lenovo has confirmed that these batteries can be subject to overheating, posing a potential fire hazard.

The recalled batteries were sold with or sold separately to be used with some models of ThinkPad notebook PCs. Those models are: T Series (T43, T43p, T60), X Series (X60, X60s) and R Series (R51e, R52, R60, R60e).

Since these batteries work with any T4x Series or R5x Series system, customers who ordered an extra battery or received a replacement battery for any T4x or R5x Series notebook PC between February 2005 and September 2006 may also have a battery subject to recall.

IBM and Lenovo sold these batteries with new notebook PCs or as replacement batteries between February 2005 and September 2006. Customers can continue to use their laptops by turning them off, removing the battery, and plugging in the AC adapter and power cord to power the system.

Lenovo estimates that between five and ten percent of ThinkPad notebooks sold during period of February 2005 to September 2006 are affected by the recall.

Lenovo Support & downloads – Battery recall

After banned the in-flight use of all Dell’s and Apple’s laptop batteries on company’s flights, Virgin Atlantic reduced those restrictions. The Dell and Apple notebook users now can normally use their PCs, but only if their laptop battery serial number was not listed in recent battery recalls by two computer manufacturers.

“Customers wishing to use an Apple or Dell laptop on board can only do so once the laptop battery serial number has been checked by a member of the Cabin Crew. If the battery is permitted for use, the laptop may be used as normal on board, with no further restrictions”, says Virgin Atlantic.

Virgin Atlantic – Latest News