Acer Recalls 27,000 Sony Laptop Batteries

Thought Sony's battery recall woes were over? Think again. Acer has announced a voluntary recall of 27,000 batteries made by the company over short-circuiting and fire concerns.

According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Acer, 16 reports of overheating batteries have already been received, though none of them were in Acer laptops themselves. The recall affects batteries within TravelMate PCs produced between May 2004 and September 2006.

Also affected are several models of its Aspire line. The laptops would have been sold through Acer distributors and at retail. The Battery pack numbers affected include BT00604001, BT00804016, BT00604005, BT00807010, BT00604002, BT00804011, and BTT4807001. Certain "week codes" are affected within these serial numbers, so users should check the Acer website.

The company is advising customers stop using the at-risk batteries immediately and contact the company for a free replacement. A website has been set up by Acer to field those requests. A toll-free number has also been set up for this purpose: 1-800-503-2330.

"In the meantime, customers may continue to use their notebook PCs by turning off the system, removing the battery, and powering the system via AC adapter and power cord, until the replacement battery is received," the company said in a statement.