Sharp starts laptop battery recall

Sharp starts laptop battery recall

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September 14, 2006 Sharp has joined the ranks of laptop manufacturers recalling troublesome batteries.

On Monday, Sharp became the latest company to announce plans to recall lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Sony, adding to the long and growing list of companies recalling such batteries.

Sony also appears to be facing widespread claims for compensation from several laptop manufacturers, including Toshiba, Hitachi and Fujitsu, according to reports.

Sharp is recalling 28,000 battery packs. "We decided to recall the batteries to ensure safety for our customers,"Latitude C600, company spokesman Hiroshi Takenami told the Associated Press. The recall was made when the company discovered the batteries could short-circuit, which could lead to overheating.

Fujitsu has announced it is replacing 51,000 more Sony laptop batteries, following a similar recall of 287,000 laptop batteries earlier this month.

Fujitsu also said it might be seeking compensation for damages for the cost of recalling the batteries. All companies involved with the battery recalls, which also include Lenovo, Apple Computer and Dell, are expecting Sony to cover the direct costs associated with the process. Now some suppliers may be seeking compensation for the indirect costs, such as the cost of damage to corporate reputations.

According to the AP, Fujitsu is assessing the "extent of damage to determine whether to seek (other) compensation,"Latitude C610, while Toshiba is considering seeking compensation "to cover damages to its product image and missed sales opportunities."

Hitachi reportedly is also seeking compensation from Sony after its own product recall earlier this month. The AP quoted a company representative saying that Hitachi is waiting to finish the recall before deciding on any compensation moves.

Dell on Friday announced a recall of about 22,000 notebook computer batteries sold in the United States and an additional 13,000 abroad.

The 35,000 recalled batteries were sold with several models of Latitude and Inspiron machines and Precision mobile workstations between Oct. 5, 2004, and Oct. 13, 2005.

Manufactured in Japan or China,Latitude C640, they were also sold on their own as replacement batteries--at a cost of between $99 and $179--during that time.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Dell warned consumers to stop using the products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

The Round Rock, Texas-based company has learned of three incidents of the recalled batteries overheating,1691P, resulting in damage to a tabletop and a desktop, and in "minor damage to personal effects," but no reported injuries.

Dell customers should contact the company and have the battery's identification number available in order to determine whether it is subject to recall. If the battery qualifies, Dell said it would supply a free replacement.

More information is available at a Dell Web page.

The latest warnings appear to be far from the scale of a massive recall of Dell notebook power adapters last year, which sought to reel in about 4.4 million adapters sold worldwide

Hewlett-Packard is recalling almost 16,000 notebook batteries worldwide after reports of the devices overheating and burning, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

This battery recall comes six months after HP and the safety commission announced one involving 135,000 battery units worldwide. 75UYF, HP, however, is hardly alone in facing battery recalls--computer makers such as Dell and Apple Computer have announced similar problems.

In HP's most recent case, batteries beginning with the bar code L3 are affected and may be found in HP and Compaq notebooks. HP Pavilion family notebooks with model numbers dv1xxx, ze2xxx, as well as HP Compaq family notebooks with model number nx48xx, may be affected. Compaq Presario models V2xxx and M2xxx may also be affected, according to the U.S. Consumer Product report.

HP is voluntarily recalling the lithium ion rechargeable batteries, which were sold at national and regional computer and electronics stores, as well as online, last year.

"An internal failure can cause the battery to overheat and melt, or char the plastic case, posing a burn and fire hazard,"5081P, according to the safety commission. "HP has received 20 reports of batteries overheating...One minor injury has been reported (and) 11 cases of minor property damage."

Back in 2001, Compaq recalled 1.4 million power adapters for its notebook computers. That case involved notebooks manufactured between 1988 and 2001 and resulted in five reports of the computers catching on fire.

Consumers who find their battery units are affected will receive a free replacement battery. Inspiron 700m,HP has also launched an HP Battery Replacement Program Web Site.