HP, Sony Stand By No Recall Decision

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.