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This story was printed from CNET Asia.
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Battery recall program

By Darius Chang
26/04/2007
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/notebooks/0,39050495,61956415,00.htm

April 26, 200--Acer joins battery exchange program.

December 26, 2006--Fujitsu exchange program details have been updated.

October 25, 2006--Apple recalls MacBook Pro batteries. However, this exchange program is not linked to Sony's recall program, but rather due to reports of sub-par battery performance.

October 17, 2006--Sharp recalls 28,000 notebooks batteries from the Japanese market.

October 18, 2006--Sony recalls 90,000 power cells from its Vaio laptops sold in Japan.


Sony has decided to initiate a world-wide recall of notebook batteries.
With more than a few laptops recreating the fiery persona of Johnny Storm in the Fantastic Four, Sony decided in September to initiate a worldwide recall of notebook batteries that it manufactured for other vendors, which include industry luminaries like HP, Fujitsu, IBM, Apple, Dell and Toshiba.

A little background on the recall. Dell was the first manufacturer to recall over four million of its Sony-made power cells. When Apple followed suit, Sony assured that such incidents would stop at these two vendors. The issue seemed to be a contaminated batch of Lithium-ion cells. However, Toshiba soon joined the lineup, though it said that this was not an issue of fire safety.

However, after a ThinkPad did the dance of the flaming laptop at Los Angeles International Airport, subsequent joint investigations resulted in Lenovo not taking any chances, exchanging the faulty cells, while Sony simultaneously announced its own recall program.

Over the weekend, Fujitsu has joined the crowd as well, while Toshiba expanded its recall initiative from the initial 340,000 cells to 830,000. This brings the total to seven million Sony-manufactured batteries which will be exchanged. Though HP had actually started a battery exchange program in April for several of its laptop series, the company did not confirm if the cause was the same which started the latest round of recalls. However, the Palo Alto giant has released a joint statement with Sony that, after investigation, there was no safety issue with its power cells and hence HP will not be recalling any battery packs this round.

Despite the fact that the percentage of recalled cells is relatively low, understandably this may shake consumer confidence, especially for the upcoming holiday buying spree. According to Lillian Tay, principal research analyst at Gartner DataQuest: "It is important for Sony and the various vendors to initiate a recovery communique to ease buyer concerns. The winner in this situation may be the one who can most effectively communicate such assurance."

So it comes down to this: Is your notebook in danger of a flaming end? If you possess a laptop from Dell, Apple, Toshiba or IBM, check the following table to see if your battery needs replacing.

Brand Model name
Models affected:
  • Latitude: D410, D500, D505, D510, D520
    D600    , D610, D620, D800, D810
  • Inspiron: 500M, 510M, 600M
    700M    , 710M, 6000, 6400, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 9400, E1505, E1705
  • Precision: M20, M60, M70, M90
  • XPS: XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170, XPS M1710


    • Battery exchange Web site: https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/
    Telephone helpline: https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/
    regionalSupport.aspx

    Fujitsu Incorporated
    Models affected:
  • LifeBook P: P1510, P7120
  • LifeBook S: S7020, S7025
  • LifeBook C: C1320


    • Battery exchange Web site: http://www.pc-ap.fujitsu.com/batteryexchange/index.html
    Telephone helpline: http://ww3.fujitsu-pcap.com.sg/registration
    /contact/index.html
    HP's battery exchange program began in
    April 2006 and is not related to Sony's recall.

    Models affected:
  • HP Pavilion: 4200, dv1xxx, dv7000, dx4000, dx5000, dx7000, zd8100, ze2xxx, ze4100-4800, ze5155, ze5200-5600, zv5000, zv5200, zx5000, zx5200
  • Compaq Presario: 1100 , 2100, 2500, M2xxx, R3000, R3200, V1000, V2xxx, X4000, X5000, X6100
  • Compaq Evo: N1010v, N1050v
  • HP Compaq: 9000, 9005, nc6000, nc8000, nw8000, nx48xx, nx9005, nx9008, nx9010, nx9100
    nx9105, nx5000


    • Battery exchange Web site: http://bpr.hpordercenter.com/
    ebpr/landingpage.aspx
    Telephone helpline: http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/
    wwcontact_us.html
    Models affected:
  • Satellite: A100, M50, M70, M100
  • Tecra : A6, A7


    • Battery exchange Web site: http://pc.toshiba-asia.com/batteryexchange/index.jsp
    Service center locator:
    http://pc.toshiba-asia.com/support/providers.html