Saturday September 30, 2006
Another flare-up over Sony batteries
By STEVEN PATRICK
PETALING JAYA: Computer makers Lenovo and IBM are recalling more than half a million Sony-made lithium-ion batteries for notebook PCs worldwide. The batteries are prone to severe overheating.
The recall, announced in the United States yesterday, follows an incident two weeks ago where a Lenovo ThinkPad T43 portable burst into flames at the Los Angeles International Airport after its battery overheated.
This is the second time in four months that a recall has been made for the Sony-made batteries. In June, Dell issued a worldwide recall after several of its notebook PCs with the batteries reportedly caught fire.
Lenovo’s Asia-Pacific office in Singapore estimated that about 526,000 of its machines would be affected by the recall, but declined to say how many were ThinkPads sold in Malaysia.
“There have only been two such incidents (reports of PCs catching fire received by her office) this year,” said communications officer Geraldine Kan.
The manufacturer is offering free replacements for the batteries, whether sold separately or with a ThinkPad notebook. The affected machines are the T43, T43P, T60, X60, X60S, R5E, R52, R60 and R60E.
Lenovo said the batteries posed a potential fire hazard.
Two different battery types are being recalled. The first is ASM 92P1072, 92P1088, 92P1142, 92P1174 and 92P1170.
The other is FRU 92P1073, 92P1089, 92P1141, 92P1169 (or 93P5028) and 92P1173 (or 93P5030).
Malaysians can call 1-800-88-8558 or go to www.lenovo. com for more details.
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