Stan Beer
Friday, 29 September 2006 05:31
Your IT -
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As predicted in iTWire, Lenovo and IBM have issued a massive global recall of the same Sony Lithium Ion batteries recalled earlier by Dell and Apple, after a public notebook fire incident at Los Angeles International Airport.
The Lenovo and IBM recall involves 526,000
Sony batteries sold with or sold separately to be used with some models
of ThinkPad notebook PCs.
The latest recall, which will be paid for by Sony, has bumped the
number of Sony Lithium Ion batteries to be replaced by the company up
to about 6.5 million, after similar Dell and Apple recalls.
The joint Lenovo and IBM recall announcement stated that the recall was
being made "in the interests of public safety". Lenovo has stated that
it moved quickly to issue the recall after the Los Angeles
International Airport incident was brought to attention and subsequent
invetsigations.
Lenovo has admitted that the batteries are potentially unsafe stating:
"Lenovo has confirmed that these batteries can be subject to
overheating, posing a potential fire hazard, and Lenovo is advising
customers to check if they are using one of the affected batteries."
Lenovo will offer customers free replacement batteries for all recalled batteries.
Lenovo estimates that between five and ten percent of ThinkPad
notebooks sold during period of February 2005 to September 2006 are
affected by the recall.
Thinkpad models include T Series, X Series and R Series models listed below:
T Series (T43, T43p, T60)
X Series (X60, X60s)
R Series (R51e, R52, R60, R60e)
For further details, including battery model numbers visit
www.lenovo.com/batteryprogram. In Australia, phone information can be
obtained by calling the Australian Service Centre on 131 426 and select
option #1.