RSSHP, Sony Stand By No Recall Decision
By Ed Oswald | Published October 3, 2006, 11:10 AM
Hewlett-Packard stood by its decision not to recall laptops that included batteries made by Sony late Monday, issuing a joint statement with the company saying there was no risk of overheating. The two said HP's laptop configurations prevented such an issue from occurring.
The beleaguered Japanese electronics manufacturer is at the center of a massive recall spanning at least five computer manufacturers and over seven million batteries. Dell was the first to announce a recall, and has since been followed by Apple, Lenovo/IBM, and Toshiba and Fujitsu.
HP says it has not received any reports of overheating issues from batteries included in Sony's global recall that was announced in late September, and was confident of their safety.
"As a result, HP determined that it is not necessary for HP to join the global battery replacement program that Sony has announced to address end-user concern related to recent overheating incidents," the companies said in a statement.
The Palo Alto, Calif. electronics company said it carefully selects the batteries used in its laptops, which are then rigorously tested. All include mutiple redundant safety circuits, and are tested both outside and inside the system before shipment.
Nonetheless, the company acknowledged that any battery could exhibit such problems seen by other manufacturers.
"While no battery is immune to failure or overheating, battery solutions provided by HP are unique and are designed with a number of HP engineered safety features that are in addition to what is typical in the industry," HP senior vice president and general manager of notebooks Ted Clark said.
What can happen when you use low quality batteries:
ThinkPad photos after replacement battery exploded (keep in mind that this particular battery was NOT a Sony battery, but no-name one)
http://zeniv.linux.org.uk/~telsa/boom/
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|FYI im bored.
"HP says it has not received any reports of overheating issues"
Probably because HP customers dont have friends and as a result no-one has noticed that they died when their laptops exploded.
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|Looks like Sony knew about the problem for a while:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com...ery-trouble-report.html
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|To be honest , this makes HP look like they are sticking their heads in the sand saying noone has complained so there must be no fault. But we are not aware of all the facts it seams ....
Fact is Sonys process for making batteries was flawed in that contamination caused a small percentage to cause concern for everyone else sony has supplied. Fact is most other big names have recalled, and this they do to protect there customers, image and reputation.
"The two said HP's laptop configurations prevented such an issue from occurring."
Quite what HP is doing with there laptops to negate the fact that they are potentially powered by a contaminated battery is beyond me, unless the laptop draws less current and it runs cooler and the actual fault is heat related is the only thing I can think of. But it sounds like PR speil to me.
HP could regret this if it explodes (pun intended) in there face.
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|They did a recall back in April 20, 2006
HP Recalls Notebook Computer Batteries Due to Fire Hazard
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpsc...rel/prhtml06/06145.html
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|Yeah I was just going to post this. Hp should add an asterisk to their public statements!
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|"While no battery is immune to failure or overheating, battery solutions provided by HP are unique and are designed with a number of HP engineered safety features that are in addition to what is typical in the industry"
I agree they are unique--however, last I checked Dell has the most stringeant testing of batteries, not HP. Of course I had checked just over two years ago, so I could be wrong.
I can say with confidence that some Sony Notebooks definately exhibit issues that should be reason enough for the batteries to be recalled. Though I can't be specific, most of the batteries in the "high-end" Vaios go out after only 80 or so full recharges, considerably lower than the 320 or so recharges guaranteed by every other major manufacturer.
They also get the hottest. I find it despicable that Sony does everything in their power to strip the temperature sensors from the systems that overheat. Do they even have any confidence in the reliability of their units? At least the others don't physically strip the sensors from their units (though many "disable" them from the "custom interface" in the BIOS)!
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|Dude it's Sony. The same company that put inferior laser tracks on their cd-devices (namely the Playstation and Walkman) and KNEW they would crap out after a short time. The same company that put faulty motors prone to overheating in their PS1 and early PS2 consoles etc.
This company has become absolutely pathetic. I can't wait to hear Mark comment on this. (For the record i'm not actually against Sony I just hate how fanboys come to their rescue with incoherent ramblings).
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|You can't be serious? Dell is only ahead of Gateway in terms of product testing. They have gotten in trouble for R&D several times. What do they do? They put out a commericial saying they test their products for 11,000 hours instead of increasing their testing. Was that enought, no. Now they are hiring 500 engineers that will take about 2 years to get changes implemented with training and product rolls.
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|Do you have any numbers on PS1 and PS2 failure rates, all the reports I saw, they were well below the industry benchmark...
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|You mean ramblings like this one?
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|Is rambiling, asking for hard facts to backup lame statements?
Jeez, this place really is full of fanboys on both extremes...
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