Thursday, July 22, 2010

Sony to launch notebook battery recall

Batteries that shipped with laptops sold by Fujitsu, Gateway, Sony and Toshiba include the removal, the CPSC said. Sony expected to make its own official announcement in a press conference on Tuesday in Japan, the CPSC said in a statement. The total number of potentially defective batteries used in laptops made by four PC manufacturers more than $ 3 million, the CPSC said.
The decision to commit U.S. recall the batteries is based on 16 previous reports of notebook batteries overheating, causing minor property damage and two minor burns, the statement said. Note that there are no reported incidents of batteries sold by Fujitsu, Gateway, Sony and Toshiba.
The CPSC, in cooperation with Sony, the withdrawal is limited to a laptop and does not affect other electronic devices with batteries made by Sony, said Julie Vallese, director of the CPSC information and public affairs.
The announcement put Gateway in the center of attention for the removal of the first time since August, when reports of battery defects first appeared. Reported two weeks ago by Sony, Gateway decided to issue a voluntary recall of the batteries contained in 18 of its notebook models, said Lisa Émard, director of media relations for Gateway.
"We have not seen any of the types of problems I've described in these batteries in our systems," he said.
Gateway announced on Monday the withdrawal of 35,000 lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Sony. The laptops affected by the recall were sent in September 2005 and include the following Gateway notebook models: Gateway CX200, CX210, E100M, M250, M255, M280, M285, M465, M685, MP8708, NX260, NX510, NX560, NX860 , NX100, MX1025, MX6918b and MX1020j.