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Gadgets More Sony Battery Recalls Announced
Brandon Hill (Blog) - September 29, 2006 4:13 PM

31 comment(s) - last by xphile.. on Oct 2 at 6:46 AM

Toshiba and Dell add more batteries to the recall list

It seems as though the fears of exploding Sony batteries is spreading to more and more notebook manufacturers and is affecting more product lines. Today, Dell announced that it is recalling another 100,000 notebook batteries in addition to the 4.1 million recalled last month.

To compound matters even further, Toshiba made an announcement today that it is recalling another 830,000 batteries at Sony's request. And if you recall, Lenovo made an announcement yesterday that it was recalling 526,000 batteries used in its ThinkPad T43, T43p, T60, R51e, R52, R60, R60e, X60 and X60s models.

Here's the current tally on the "Total Recall" of Sony-manufactured batteries:

Dell: 4.2 million
Apple: 1.8 million
Toshiba: 1.1 million (340,000 batteries were already recalled earlier this month)
IBM/Lenovo: 526,000
Matsusita/Panasonic: 6,000

We're sure this isn't going to be the last that we hear of Sony battery recalls. The next recall is just another explosion away.

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wow

By Samus on 9/29/2006 6:41:49 PM , Rating: 2

this must be the largest manufacturing screwup ever.

RE: wow

By GonzoDaGr8 on 9/29/2006 8:08:02 PM , Rating: 2

Yeah, This makes IBM's 75GXP hard drives look good..

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RE: wow

By Souka on 9/29/2006 10:18:50 PM , Rating: 2

not really... I lost drives in those series... data much harder to replace....

and I've had dozens of Dell, and now Lenovo, batteries affected....abiet no fires/explosions to report.

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RE: wow

By Souka on 9/29/2006 10:19:33 PM , Rating: 2

HD's were personal, batteries are at my job...

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RE: wow

By kitchme on 9/30/2006 1:31:26 AM , Rating: 2

True, but with pictures of exploded batteries I've seen, I wonder if hard drive (incl. data) would survive such meltdown. Either way, it's no fun losing data.

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RE: wow

By StevoLincolnite on 9/30/2006 3:40:59 AM , Rating: 3

I have an Acer laptop, with a Sanyo Battery. Is Sanyo a branch off from sony?

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RE: wow

By mindless1 on 10/1/2006 4:54:10 PM , Rating: 2

No, Sanyo (Panasonic) is the OTHER major manufacturer that everyone is wishing they'd used rightaboutnow.

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RE: wow

By Christopher1 on 10/2/2006 2:07:25 AM , Rating: 2

I have to agree with that estimation. I thought it was bad when I saw a lot of hard drives recalled for defects, but that is nowhere NEAR the scale of this recall.

Sony has been out to lunch on a bunch of things recently: DRM rootkits, batteries, computers, etc.

Most of their stuff has been S*** recently, and that is coming from someone who was once a Sony Fanboy.

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RE: wow

By theapparition on 10/2/2006 6:32:03 AM , Rating: 2

Ever hear of a company called Firestone? People died.

Although in all fairness, most of the Firestone tire problems had more to do with Ford intentionally underinflating them since the Explorer was more likely to roll over with proper inflation. That's why there was a difference between inflation pressure printed on the tire and in Ford manual.

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Thumbs up for SONY :)

By Clauzii on 9/30/2006 3:21:01 PM , Rating: 1

All this actually just shows that SONY take customers safety more serious than money. more than 6mio batteries ain't cheap :)

RE: Thumbs up for SONY :)

By Clauzii on 9/30/2006 4:01:56 PM , Rating: 2

Sorry - more than 7mio batteries.

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RE: Thumbs up for SONY :)

By Chillin1248 on 9/30/2006 9:31:43 PM , Rating: 3

I agree, props on being the first to point it out. Though of course they have their own interest in mind against lawsuits, they must've had alternatives than a full recall.

-------
Chillin

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RE: Thumbs up for SONY :)

By Clauzii on 10/1/2006 7:39:49 AM , Rating: 2

Could it be that they will be able to check and repair most of the lot (or at least reuse the "chemicals") and put it to market again , so they wouldn't lose so much?

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RE: Thumbs up for SONY :)

By doctor sam adams on 10/1/2006 11:53:20 AM , Rating: 2

Probably not. The problem with the batteries is contamination of certain parts by microscopic metal particles. It would be a very expensive pain to separate them all out and then reconstitute the batteries.

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RE: Thumbs up for SONY :)

By mindless1 on 10/1/2006 4:56:38 PM , Rating: 2

... and if they resued parts of these known bad cells and any of them later failed (regardless of whether the original fault were the new cause), would they ever hear the end of it?

At this point, I'm sure they're trying to find the most politically correct way to salvage their battery business rather than cost-cutting recycling measures.

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Ouch

By Chernobyl68 on 9/29/2006 4:21:54 PM , Rating: 3

When it rains, it pours.

RE: Ouch

By FITCamaro on 9/29/2006 4:32:19 PM , Rating: 3

Sony's gonna be lucky to have money left to build PS3s with.

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RE: Ouch

By MonkeyPaw on 9/29/2006 5:48:16 PM , Rating: 2

Well, I'd assume that the division that makes batteries is separate from the other major parts of the company (like the record label and the Playstation). Most large companies are broken up into smaller companies to protect from just this sort of thing. Fortunately for Sony, their batteries have yet to seriously injure anyone (at least that I've heard). Imagine if one of their batteries caused an office to catch on fire or a plane to crash! At this point, the best they can hope for is avoiding class action lawsuits.

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RE: Ouch

By Souka on 9/29/2006 10:17:00 PM , Rating: 1

No joke....

I replaced two li-ion [b]SONY[/b] batteries today...in my 1995 Ford Exploder, errr...Explorer's key-remote.

I laughed when I saw them.....

Yeah...yeah.. I know these have nothing to do with the recent recall, but still....

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nice

By quiksilv3r on 9/29/2006 5:15:10 PM , Rating: 2

aha, nice total recall reference :)

RE: nice

By Clauzii on 9/30/2006 3:25:04 PM , Rating: 2

Heh - they didn'y "try" to calculate the sum this time ;)

(Only joking :)

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4 weeks

By User1001 on 9/30/2006 5:27:14 PM , Rating: 2

Damn, I have to wait 4 weeks to get the replacement for the t43. I guess thats better than it blowing up in my face, though.

RE: 4 weeks

By ksherman on 10/1/2006 4:34:51 PM , Rating: 2

just gives you 4 weeks of keeping a wary eye on your lappy :-)

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Sony batteries recalls

By crystal clear on 9/30/2006 7:18:44 AM , Rating: 2

*As per Nikkei.net add Fujitsu to the list.
* Business week also has a good article on this subject.
*Refer to guidlines issued by US CSPC
www.CPSC.gov-Release#06-271-Sept 28 2006.

The way things are shaping out from day to day,I think a TOTAL ban on Sony laptop batteries will on the way soon.
Thats the only way to stop explosions/panic/doubts etc people have in their mind-there are no guarrantees,IT can
NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN .
So a blanket ban is the need of the hour/situation.

HP..

By Araemo on 10/1/2006 1:23:39 PM , Rating: 2

I'm still kind've hoping HP has to recall my Laptop's battery, it's 3 years old and only lasts half as long as it used to, so I wouldn't mind a free replacement. ;P

And Finally...

By xphile on 10/2/2006 6:46:18 AM , Rating: 2

Here's the FINAL tally on the "Total Recall" of Sony items.

Batteries:
Dell: 4.2 million
Apple: 1.8 million
Toshiba: 1.1 million (340,000 batteries were already recalled earlier this month)
IBM/Lenovo: 526,000
Matsusita/Panasonic: 6,000

Nasty Rootkit Installing Audio CDs: Millions

Bad PS2 Power Adapters : 3.5 million

Blah

Blah Blah

Blah de blah etc etc etc

Welsh-born Sony Chief Executives : One

Toshiba

By Schadenfroh on 9/30/2006 11:35:21 AM , Rating: 1

I cant seem to find the model numbers of the new recalls on Toshiba's site. All I can find is information on the earlier recall. Any idea which models are involved in the new one?