Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2007/08/10/sony_toshiba/

Another 1,400 Sony batteries sent for slaughter

Flaming pyres, panic in the shires..

By James Sherwood

Posted in Personal Tech, 10th August 2007 15:25 GMT

Batteries continue to be a hot topic for Sony, but not in a good way. Toshiba American Information Systems has announced the recall of some 1,400 Sony batteries used in its Satellite and Tecra notebook range.

The warning states that the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries can, as usual, overheat and pose a fire hazard to consumers. Toshiba has already received notice of three incidents outside of the US, each caused by the notebook batteries overheating.

The batteries, which were made in China, were either sold separately or with Toshiba’s Satellite A100, A105 or Tecra A7 notebooks, which retail for between $700 and $1,300. Toshiba, in conjunction with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, has released the model numbers for the batteries it hopes to recover, which were all manufactured between 1 January 2006 and 30 April 2006.

The recall is yet further damaging news for Sony, which has already been implicated in the recall of thousands of laptop batteries because of worries over them bursting into flames. In April, Acer’s US operation asked 27,000 customers to return Sony-made laptop batteries.

Earlier this month, Sony was even forced to recall 350,000 digital cameras. Not because their batteries might burst into flames, but over fears that the metal casing on its Cyber-shot DSC-T5 camera had the potential to cut or scratch users.