Laptop Manufacturers Recall 100,000 Sony Batteries Over Fire Risks

Sony has announced that it is recalling more than 100,000 batteries one of its subsidiaries, Sony Energy Devices Corp, manufactured for some of the biggest laptop manufacturers in the market on fears that they may be a fire hazard.

74,000 HP laptops, more than 14000 Toshiba laptops and a few thousands Acer, Dell and Lenovo devices are understood to be affected by the recall which concerns laptops sold between in 2004 and 2005, with nearly two thirds sold outside the US.

The decision to recall the batteries came after more than 40 cases of overheating were recorded, which Sony blamed on poor raw material and changing factory settings.

Early last month, Sony recalled 73,000 TZ-Series VAIO Laptops after one customer had been burnt by overheating laptops and in 2006, Sony had to recall nearly 10 million batteries which cost the company a whopping £360 million.

Sony said that it will not affect its earnings significantly and has advised the laptop users to stop using them immediately and request a free replacement battery in the meantime.