HP Has More Battery Troubles, Issues Recall

Hewlett-Packard on Thursday announced a voluntary recall of about 70,000 notebook PC battery packs, in conjunction with product safety authorities in the U.S. and Canada.

The recalled lithium-ion batteries "can overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers," according to a report by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which issued the recall along with HP and Health Canada. The CPSC and HP received two reports of "batteries that overheated and ruptured, resulting in flames/fire that caused minor property damage," although no injuries were reported.

HP, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., also recalled about 32,000 Sony-made batteries last October. Toshiba and Dell were also part of that voluntary product recall, with Toshiba recalling about 3,000 units and Dell recalling around 150.

The CPSC statement Thursday did not identify the manufacturer of the 70,000 units in HP's more recent product recall, but did state that they were manufactured in China. The Sony batteries recalled last October were made in Japan.

The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries being recalled were sold in notebooks ranging in price from $500 to $3,000 from August 2007 to March 2008 at computer and electronics stores in the United States and through HP's online outlets, hp.com and hpshopping.com, according to the CPSC. Some units were also sold separately as battery packs for between $100 and $160.

Notebook models affected include nine HP Pavilion laptops and nine in the Compaq Presario lineup, as well as the HP G6000, HP G7000 and HP Compaq 6720s. The earlier recall targeted batteries in three other HP Pavilion notebooks, two other Compaq Presario products and 10 HP Compaq units. The complete list of affected units and identifying bar codes on the batteries being recalled are available in the CPSC report.

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