Lenovo Recalls 560,000 Sony Batteries

In conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, both IBM and Lenovo announced that they were calling for the voluntary recall of approximately 526,000 laptop batteries manufactured by Sony. Lenovo had announced earlier this week that it was investigating reports of issues with laptops containing batteries from the manufacturer.

The two companies become the fourth and fifth computer makers behind Toshiba, Apple, and Dell to recall Sony batteries due to overheating problems. Altogether, nearly 6.8 million laptops have been affected, although in fairness Toshiba's recall of 340,000 had to do more with a defect in the laptop manufacturing itself.

Lenovo acknowledged over the weekend that it was investigating an incident in which an IBM ThinkPad T43 laptop overheated and caught fire at Los Angeles International Airport. Nobody was hurt, but officials have begun expressing concern about the safety of laptops on airplanes.

At the time, the company would not say whether it was considering a recall, however Thursday's announcement confirmed that the recall was sparked by that incident.

The issues affect the following models: in the T Series, the T43, T43p, and T60; in the X Series, the X60 and X60s; and in the R Series, the R51e, R52, R60, and R60e. The recall affects laptops sold, as well as replacement batteries ordered, during the period of February 2005 to September 2006.