Hewlett Packard is recalling thousands of
laptops after two machines caught fire after their
batteries overheated. 70,000 batteries are subject to the voluntary recall, with the
computer manufacturer promising free replacements for all those affected. The
lithium ion batteries affected were contained in
HP or
Compaq notebooks sold between August 2007 and March 2008. Amongst the models said to be affected are the Compaq Evo, HP, HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario and
HP Compaq .
Hewlett Packard is advising users to remove the
battery immediately, and to only use their
laptop if using the plug.
In order to ensure all 70,000 potentially faulty batteries are replaced, a Hewlett Packard spokeswoman revealed that 203,000 laptops would be affected worldwide. 86,000 of these are in Europe, 82,000 in the Americas and 35,000 in Asia Pacific.
The recall brings back memories of a similar recall of thousands of
digital cameras . The cameras were at risk of setting alight if used with non-rechargeable batteries. Furthermore,
Sony was forced into a similar recall of batteries three years ago due to overheating problems. As recently as last year Sony were forced to recall 35,000 batteries in Hewlett Packard,
Dell and
Toshiba PCs after 17 reports of fires.