The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in cooperation with Lenovo today announced a voluntary recall of the nine-cell extended batteries for laptops sold between November 2005 and February 2007 with ThinkPad R series, T series and Z series, because of accidents caused by battery overheating.
“If the battery in the laptop is struck forcefully on the corner, such as from a direct fall to the ground, the battery pack can overheat and pose a fire hazard to users,” CPSC says.
It is said that Lenovo has received four reports of batteries overheating and damaging the laptop. This caused damage to the notebook computers, minor property damage and, in one case, minor eye irritation to one consumer.
CPSC says that about 100,000 recalled battery packs in United States have the FRU P/N 92P1131 part number. An additional 105,000 battery packs were sold worldwide. These extended-life batteries were sold with new ThinkPad notebook PCs or as optional or replacement batteries for the following ThinkPad notebook models: R Series (R60 and R60e), T Series (T60 and T60p) and Z Series (Z60m, Z61e, Z61m, and Z61p).
“Consumers should stop using the recalled batteries and contact Lenovo for additional information and to receive a free replacement battery. Consumers should use only ThinkPad batteries obtained from either Lenovo or an authorized reseller,” CPSC advises.
The recalled batteries were made by Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., of Japan.