Sony says battery burn-out probe should have been quicker
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Had trouble meeting demand for high-capacity power packs Sony has admitted it could have moved "more quickly" to tackle the burning battery bug that hit two of the company's biggest power-pack customers, Dell and Apple, and prompted many others to recall Sony-made lithium-ion batteries.â¦
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By Rachel Konrad< Associated Press  SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Computer Inc. on Thursday recalled 1.8 million Sony-built notebook batteries that could overheat and catch fire, just 10 days after Dell Inc.'s record-setting recall involving the same problem and the same supplier.
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Blog: Dig enough, and you'll finally get a reality check on the claim of 12-hour battery life from the One Laptop Per Child project.
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Japan's Hitachi Corp. said Friday that it plans to recall about 16,000 laptop battery packs made by Sony Corp., a company spokesman said, the latest in a massive global recall of the batteries that can overheat and catch fire.
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Thought all the laptop battery problems were over? Think again. Gateway recalled Samsung-made batteries due to a fire risk, while Toshiba reports a defective Sony-made battery sparked a laptop fire last month.
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Japanese authorities reported Tuesday the first case in Japan of an Apple laptop catching fire and ordered the U.S. company to investigate the trouble involving the faulty Sony batteries and report back within a week.
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(InfoWorld) - Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.Â (Panasonic) said it has developed a lithium-ion battery that won't overheat even if a short circuit occurs. The new battery includes a heat-resistive insulator inside the battery cell, next to an existing separator that insulates the anode and cathode. If that separator is punctured a short circuit occurs that typically causes the battery to overheat and in some circumstances catch fire. Panasonic said its insulator layer ensures that the battery won't overheat even in the event of a short circuit. Panasonic's announcement responds to consumers' concern about the safety of lithium-ion batteries following a number of incidents involving them. Earlier this year most major laptop computer makersÂ started recall or exchange programsÂ for batteries containing lithium-ion cells made by Sony after a number of batteries overheated and caught fire. Sony blamed the problem on metallic particles that got inside the battery during production, puncturing the separator layer and causing a short circuit. The replacement program covers 9.6 million batteries and willÂ cost SonyÂ up to Â¥51 billion (US$432 million). Then on Dec. 7, Japanese mobile-carrier NTT DoCoMo and handset-maker Mitsubishi ElectricÂ recalled 1.3 million cell-phone batteriesÂ made by Sanyo Electric, saying they could overheat and catch fire. Panasonic's new batteries are made by another company in the Matsushita group, Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., and are ready for mass production, said Akira Kadota, a spokesman for Panasonic in Tokyo. The batteries aren't available directly to end users but are sold in bulk to electronics product manufacturers, so Panasonic wouldn't reveal their price. Kadota said they could be more expensive than current cells but could also work out cheaper if large orders are placed. Matsushita Battery Industrial is one of the largest battery makers in Japan. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (Panasonic) is recalling several thousand laptop computer battery packs because mechanical problems with the pack's latch could lead to overheating of the battery. The recall applies to around 6,000 battery packs that were shipped with its CF-W4G Let's Note W4 laptop computers in April and May of 2005, the company said Tuesday. The recall only applies to machines shipped in Japan. The problems arise if the owner sometimes drops the machine or sets it down on a table very roughly, said Akira Kadota, a spokesman for the company in Tokyo. On such occasions the small spring in the latch can penetrate the battery pack and cause a short circuit that leads to overheating, he said. Panasonic has documented two cases to-date of this happening with the battery packs under recall. "This is veryÂ different from the Sony case," he said referring to recent recalls by Dell and Apple ComputerÂ of almost 6 million battery packs containing Sony-made cells. Sony said the presence of metallic particles inside the battery meant there is a chance that the cells could overheat and catch fire under certain circumstances. The cells in the batteries under recall were not made by Sony or Panasonic, said Kadota. He wouldn't name the battery maker. Panasonic has posted details of the recall on the Internet in Japanese at:Â http://askpc.panasonic.co.jp/info/info_w4.html.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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A new "gas gauge" chip for laptop batteries provides much more accurate readouts of time left.
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Toshiba, Dell, IBM. Who's next? Dell is increasing the number of Sony-made batteries it is recalling from 4.1 million to 4.2 million, the company said today.â¦
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Sony's Q&A people get bored the day after Thanksgiving and offer to replace Cybershot cameras whose LCD screens malfunction in warm and humid places. Could be a cool million cameras affected. In Gear Factor.
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Global recall total pushes past 7.6m Fujitsu has become the latest notebook computer manufacturer to ask its customers to send back batteries made by Sony. Acer may be about to do the same.â¦
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The Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said Friday that it is recalling 830,000 batteries made by Sony for its laptop computers while personal computer maker Dell Inc. expanded its recall of Sony battery packs by 100,000. The batteries can short-circuit and have been blamed for causing some computers to catch fire.
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Japan's Hitachi Corp. said Friday that it plans to recall about 16,000 laptop battery packs made by Sony Corp. over possible overheating problems, a news report said.
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By ELLIOT SPAGAT    COSTA MESA, Calif.  -- Few people took notice when Sony Electronics Inc...
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Consumers are being asked to return 526,000 laptop batteries made by Sony Corp. because they could catch fire, the latest in a record-setting recall involving nearly 7 million computers.
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Fujitsu provided more guidance Wednesday on the specifics of its previously announced recall, saying that 287,000 Sony-manufactured batteries would be recalled due to short-circuit and overheating issues.