Hewlett-Packard has recalled around 135,000 lithium ion
rechargeable battery packs after several burned owners’
laptops.
The recalled batteries are used with HP Pavilion, Compaq
Presario, HP Compaq and Compaq Evo laptops. The batteries are made
by a third-party manufacturer which HP has not named.
HP said it had so far received reports of almost 20 cases of
batteries overheating.
HP said, “The computer industry has recently experienced battery
pack recalls by other computer manufacturers. However, HP believes
that this current battery pack recall is unrelated to any other
announced battery recalls.”
Apple has undertaken three battery-pack recalls over the past 18
months, for instance.
HP said the faulty battery packs had been assembled between
March 2004 and September 2004. It said the defect posed a potential
safety hazard to end-users.
A new battery will be mailed to affected users in five to 10
days, once they have reported the problem via HP’s website.
Customers can verify if they potentially have a faulty battery
pack by going to
www.hp.com/support/batteryreplacement