Thought the Great Sony Battery Recall of 2006 was past history? Think again. Acer's US operation last night said it was asking 27,000 customers to return Sony-made laptop batteries for a free replacement.

Acer stressed it had received no reports that any of its machines have gone up in smoke in the way that laptops from Apple, Fujitsu and, in particular, Dell did so spectacularly last year. And despite months of testing, Acer engineers could find no fault with the company's products, it claimed.

What prompted the recall, then? We're just being extra-cautious, an Acer spokesman said.

Details of the laptops included in the recall can be found at Acer's website here. The programme takes in a range of TravelMate and Aspire machines sold in North America between May 2004 and November 2006. It also includes batteries sold separately during that period.

Acer joins not only Apple and Dell but also Lenovo, IBM, Sony itself, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Gateway, Sharp and Toshiba, all of whom have instituted battery recalls during the last 12 months.

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