New Sony Laptop Battery Recalls Announced

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

September 29, 2006, 10:56 AM

Sony's laptop battery woes got even worse Friday, as one computer maker announced a new recall and two others expanded their already existing recalls of batteries made by the Japanese manufacturer. With these latest announcements, about 7 million Sony batteries have been recalled.

Fujitsu has said it will announce a broad recall across 19 of its laptop lines, although it did not specify an exact number. Meanwhile, Toshiba announced a new recall affecting 830,000 laptops, and Dell said it was recalling an additional 100,000 units as part of its current recall.

Toshiba had initially called for a recall of about 340,000 batteries back in mid-September, although it was not for a fire risk. Instead, the batteries are affected by a glitch that prevents them from properly storing power.

The newest recall affects their Dynabook, Qosmio, and Satellite Portege and Tecra models. Exact information on dates of manufacture and regions affected were unknown. Specifics on the new Dell and Fujitsu recalls were not available at press time.

Sony directed manufacturers to launch recalls of laptops using its defective batteries on Friday. It confirmed that the cause of the fire problem was due to small metal particles coming loose within the battery and causing a short circuit, although it said that such an occurrence was rare.

It was for this reason the new recalls were announced on Friday, and it's likely others may follow suit. Sony estimated that the battery issue would cost the company at least $171 to $250 million, but that was only including the Dell and Apple recalls. With the latest announcements, some speculate that figure could eventually double.