Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/28/lenovo_battery_recall/
Lenovo and IBM today issued a recall (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=BATT-LENOVO) on notebook batteries sold with various ThinkPad models between February 2005 and September 2006.
More than 500,000 units are affected - they are powered by the now notorious lithium-ion 'Zippo' batteries made by Sony, which have a nasty habit of exploding into flames.
Last week, a Lenovo-made laptop exploded in Los Angeles airport and this presumably grabbed the eye of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is named in today's product recall.
To our knowledge, the LAX Thinkpad was the first from Lenovo to go up in flames. But reports of exploding Dell notebooks have been much more common - Dell sold the dodgy batteries for a longer period, between April 2004 and July 2006, and it also sold a lot more notebooks, period. Some 4.1m notebook batteries were recalled by Dell last month. Apple has also issued a recall, for some 1.8m Zippos.
According to Reuters, this round of battery recalls could cost Sony $430m. ®
Lenovo ditches IBM from ThinkPad early (1 November 2007)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/11/01/lenovo_drops_thinkpad/
Gateway recalls 14,000 more laptop batteries (20 June 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/06/20/gateway_battery_recall/
Lenovo swallows tasty profit (24 May 2007)
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/05/24/lenovo_healthy_q4/
Acer recalls 27,000 Sony laptop batteries (26 April 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/04/26/acer_recalls_27k_batteries/
Only you can prevent airline battery fires (23 March 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/23/airline_battery_safety/
MacBook goes up in flames (12 March 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/12/macbook_inferno/
Lenovo recalls 200,000 Thinkpad batteries (1 March 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/03/01/lenovo_sanyo_battery_recall/
IBM hits Lenovo with $123m stock sale shocker (7 February 2007)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/07/ibm_lenovo_sale/
Panasonic pitches 'safe' lithium-ion laptop battery (18 December 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12/18/panasonic_pitches_safe_li-ions/
NEC recalls fire-risk desktop PCs (18 December 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12/18/nec_desktop_pc_recall/
Sony says battery burn-out probe should have been quicker (4 December 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/12/04/sony_battery_confession/
Gateway opens up to Sony battery recall plan (24 October 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/24/gateway_laptop_battery_recall/
Sony begins Vaio battery recall (17 October 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/17/sony_japan_recalls_90k_vaio_batteries/
Sharp asks laptop owners to return 28,000 batteries (16 October 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/16/sharp_battery_recall/
Hitachi recalls Sony laptop batteries (6 October 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/06/hitachi_battery_recall/
Fujitsu wants 287,000 Sony batteries back (4 October 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/04/fujitsu_battery_recall/
Battery recall spreads like wild, er fire (29 September 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/29/battery_recall/
Man saves laptop from battery blaze (25 September 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/25/man_saves_laptop/
Sony probes Los Angeles Airport laptop blaze (25 September 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/25/sony_probes_lax_laptop_fire/
Yahoo! guest's Dell laptop goes up in smoke (21 September 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/09/21/burning_laptop_epidemic/
'Zippo' battery recall could cost Sony $430m and a truck (16 August 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/16/sony_recall_cost/
Dell's 'Zippo' batteries may be in other machines (16 August 2006)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/08/16/dell_battery_problems/