The Consumer Safety Product Commission made overtures Tuesday that it may expand the battery recall past Dell laptops, as it said it was investigating all laptop batteries produced by Sony. The company's batteries also appear in laptops produced by Hewlett Packard, Apple and Lenovo. The agency is not saying that there is a danger to owners of non-Dell laptops with Sony batteries just yet, but it wanted to ensure they do not pose a safety risk elsewhere.

Nearly 4.1 million laptop batteries in Dell machines shipped between April 1, 2004 and July 18, 2006 have already been recalled as a safety precaution after several high-profile cases where the computers caught on fire. However, this latest move could significantly expand the scope of that recall. To its defense, Sony says it believes the overheating problem to be specific to Dell, but said recall decisions were up to the laptop manufacturers.