Panasonic joins notebook battery recall
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Third company announces battery recall, but its recall program is much smaller than those for Dell and Apple.
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New battery a welcome addition to the market after recall costs laptop manufacturers millions.
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(InfoWorld) - Gateway Inc. is recalling 14,000 batteries used in its notebook PCs after four customers reported that their computers had overheated, a similar condition to the massive battery recall that swept the industry in 2006. Dell Inc., Apple Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd. and other vendorsÂ recalled more than 8 million batteries made by Sony Corp. when customers began complaining that the rechargeable lithium-ion cells could overheat and catch fire after being dropped. Gateway recalled 35,000 batteries in that episode, beginning in October 2006. However, the new recall affects battery cells made by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and assembled into battery packs by Simplo Technology Co. Ltd., of Taiwan, Gateway spokeswoman Lisa Emard said on Tuesday. Gateway, the third-largest PC vendor in the U.S., expects both vendors to help cover the cost of the action. "We're working with our suppliers to cover the cost of replacement battery packs and other direct costs. We expect our costs to be limited to incidental expenses associated with administering the exchange program," Emard said. Simplo and Samsung did not return calls for comment. Even when they offer free replacement batteries, PC vendors face a challenge in persuading laptop users to participate in recalls. Earlier Tuesday,Â Toshiba launched a campaign to remind laptop users to return Sony batteries, after one user's computer burst into flames eight months after the previous recall began. Gateway expects better results from this recall since all the PCs were purchased through direct channels, either over Gateway's Web site and phone lines or through professional direct sales, Emard said. That means Gateway still has the buyers' addresses, and plans to contact them with news of the exchange program. The recall affects certain Gateway 400VTX and 450ROG series notebooks sold between May 2003 and August 2003, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The faulty batteries are identified by part numbers 6500760 or 6500761 and say "made by SMP" on a label pasted on the underside of the battery pack. "The root cause of this failure becomes apparent as the batteries age and perform repetitive charging cycles," Emard said. Of the four customer complaints, one had caused minor property damage while the others simply overheated, she said. Â
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IBM, maker of the popular Thinkpad notebook computers, released a statement announcing the recall of 553,000 notebook computer power adapters.
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RALEIGH, N.C.  -- Lenovo Inc. recalled about 205,000 laptop computer batteries worldwide Thursday, warning that they could overheat and cause a fire.  The battery recall was the second for the company in the past six months and comes as Lenovo, the world's No.
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Apple is voluntarily recalling certain lithium ion rechargeable batteries that were sold worldwide from January 2004 through August 2004 for use with 15-inch PowerBook G4 (Aluminum) notebook computers. The affected batteries could overheat, posing a fire hazard. [Aug 19]
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Computer maker Lenovo Inc. on Thursday recalled about 100,000 lithium-ion batteries used in ThinkPad laptops after receiving four reports of the Sanyo-built batteries overheating.
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Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL.O) has agreed to recall about 28,000 batteries used in its 15-inch PowerBook G4 laptop computers, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday.
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Japanese electronics maker Fujitsu Ltd.  said on Wednesday it would recall 287,000 notebook PC batteries made by Sony Corp. , bringing the number of Sony batteries recalled to more than 7.5 million.
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Japanese electronics giant Matsushita, the maker of Panasonic products, has begun recalling some 6,000 laptop batteries due to fears that they may overheat, a company spokesman has said.
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- Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp. 6758.T   on Thursday said it will recall certain lithium-ion notebook   computer batteries following complaints of overheating by some   computer makers.
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Hitachi Ltd.  said on Friday it  will recall 16,000 batteries made by Sony Corp.  for  laptop computers, joining a growing list of PC makers recalling  Sony batteries.
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Apple is recalling about 28,000 batteries that shipped this year in its PowerBook G4 portable computers.
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A fire involving a laptop at Los Angeles International Airport has prompted Lenovo Group and IBM to recall Sony-made batteries used in 526,000 laptops because of concerns about fire.
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Dell Inc.'s record-setting recall of 4.1 million notebook computer batteries raised safety concerns about the power source of countless electronic devices, but experts said the problem appears to stem from flaws in the production of the laptop batteries, not the underlying technology.
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Apple has had to recall up to 28,000 notebook batteries that were sold for use with their 15-inch PowerBook. Apple reports that faulty batteries sold between January 2004 and August 2004 can overheat and pose a fire hazard.
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Japanese electronics maker Fujitsu Ltd.  said on Wednesday it would recall 287,000 notebook PC batteries made by Sony Corp. .