Nokia Issues Massive Phone Battery Recall

By Ed Oswald | Published August 14, 2007, 10:04 AM

Nokia said Tuesday that about 46 million units of its BL-5C cell phone battery may be at risk of overheating, and is offering to replace them free of charge.

The Finnish phone manufacturer has several companies who produce the battery, and together they have shipped about 300 million units in total. This particular recall would target those produced by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006.

"While the occurrence in the BL-5C batteries produced by Matsushita in the time-period specified is very rare, for consumers wishing to do so, Nokia and Matsushita offer to replace any BL-5C battery subject to this product advisory," Nokia said in a statement.

During charging, a short circuit can occur which may pose an overheating risk. So far, about 100 separate incidents have been reported, although there were no serious injuries or property damage. About four dozen recently produced Nokia phone models use the battery.

Nokia Battery

No other battery models are affected by the recall, Nokia said.

Consumers can determine whether or not Matsushita manufactured their battery during the time period by looking for the battery identification number. Once they have found that number, Nokia asks that they visit a special Web site where they can enter the code to see if it is part of the recall.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

i bought a Nokia 2610 with the "dodgy" 5L - BC battery and i am wondering how Nokia can replace it for me . I am in Kampala Uganda and we have 2 authorised dealers , Simba telecom and Mid Com.

Score: 0

|

I have nopw 6 BL-5C Battery and they are all overheating

Score: 0

|

My battery no 0670400363563
M294811806081
and 0670400363563
N122622801665
and 0670400462040
N505A10586025
whether betteries are ok or not.

Score: 0

|

Please check the number of my Nokia Mobile battery whether ok or not

Score: 0

|

I recently purchased this phone and model in Toronto, Ontario Canada and the battery is overheating. what should i do. this is a risk and dangerous.

Score: 0

|

I have 5 BL-5C Battery ang it is overheating

Score: 0

|

It gotta be the week of recalls! Opps, make that month. Mattel has two large recalls of toys (Aug. 1 and Aug. 14) and more bad toothpaste from China.

It even states on the battery "Do not short-circuit."

I would expect this recall to expand further.

Score: 0

|

Well Yes My Husbands Nokia Phone has this battery in it...But because the code is different it will not be replaced...What bull is that...It is still a BL-5C...

Score: 0

|

Hmmm...guess some people can't read.

Score: 0

|

So lets the idiots now predict the death of Nokia/Panasonic, like they did over the Sony battery issues.

Score: 0

|

It is almost strange how it's not getting anything like the same level of attention... ;-)

Score: 0

|

Indeed, a news article, about Sony laptop batteries affecting 1,400 batteries gets more posts, than a new item about Nokia/Panasonic affecting 45million batteries..

I'm even suprised BetaRumours even bothered reporting it, as it's nothing to do with Sony, and does not fit into their hate campaign.

Score: 0

|

PDC 2009: What have we learned this week?

There was the freebie that no one will forget, the heebie-jeebies courtesy of Scott Guthrie, and a teensy bit clearer picture of how this cloud thingie should work.

Live report: Will Google Chrome OS change Linux?

The mysteries of just what Chrome OS is, and how much of an operating system it truly is, may be resolved today.

PDC 2009: Microsoft cares about Web browser performance

The effort to give users of the world's dominant Web browser the impression of quality, is a personal one for the man who leads that battle.

Nokia re-affirms its commitment to Symbian, sort of

Maemo won't necessarily be replacing Symbian in the Nokia N-Series, but that's definitely a place where it will be found.

E-book readers will be in short supply this holiday season

E-readers are hot this year, and a lot of compelling new products have been released, but are there enough electrophoretic displays to go around?

Sony looks to finally open a single storefront for downloads

Sony has had many different download portals for movies, music, e-books, and games, and now it's looking to make a single shop for all of it.

Tuning out the tablet: Time to give the endless speculation a rest

Wide Angle Zoom: Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying....won't put an iTablet on the market.

Five improvements for IT managers in 2010

If businesses are to improve their efficiency for next year, they need to stop and reassess the basic tenets of their job.

AOL's spinoff from Time Warner to shed 2,500 jobs

As AOL moves toward become an independent company again, it will cut nearly a third of its workforce.

Gartner: SMS-based money transfer will be bigger than mobile browsing, search

Gartner issues its predictions for the 10 things our phones will be doing in 2012.

Don't forget to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 beta 3 today

Mozilla has released the latest beta its Firefox 3.6 browser software, just over one week after beta 2.