Lenovo and IBM recall 526,000 Sony batteries

Stan Beer
Friday, 29 September 2006 06:31

Your IT - Home IT

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.

• Announcements

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.