Sony batteries in trouble again - new recall hits 100k

Posted on Friday, October 31 2008 @ 15:29 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
More than a year ago the computer industry was hit by massive recalls of li-ion batteries and this week Sony and the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a new recall of 100,000 li-ion battery packs powered by Sony's 2.15Ah lithium ion cells. These cells were manufactured between October 2004 and June 2005 and were used in notebooks from HP, Toshiba and Dell. Each manufacturer set up a website where users can fill out a form to receive a free battery replacement.

Here's a bit more info about the faulty batteries:
. Thirty-five thousand of those were sold in the U.S., and 65,000 in international markets. Sony says it has shipped 260 million of these batteries since 2002.

According to the CPSC, 32,000 Hewlett-Packard notebooks, 3,000 Toshiba notebooks, and 150 Dell notebooks are said to be affected. Sony has said that its Vaio notebooks are not included in the recall as they use a different type of battery.

The 2.15Ah lithium ion battery is also not the same Sony battery involved in the massive 2006 recall, according to the company. This also, so far, appears to be on a much smaller scale than during 2006, when more than 8 million notebook batteries were recalled.

Sony says it first received reports of problems with the 2.15Ah batteries in June 2005. Since then, PC manufacturers have received reports of 40 overheating incidents worldwide. Some of the overheating resulted in smoke or flames, leading to some "small burns," and about half of the incidents included "minor property damage," according to Sony and the CPSC.
Here's a list of affected models:
HP Pavilion dv1000, dv8000, and zd8000, Compaq Presario v2000 and v2400, and HP Compaq nc6110, nc6120, nc6140, nc6220, nc6230, nx4800, nx4820, nx6110, nx6120, nx9600; Toshiba Satellite A70/A75, P30/P5, M30X/M35X, and M50/M55; and Dell Latitude 110L, Inspiron 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150, and 5160.
Update: According to Engadget some Acer notebooks are affected as well.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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