Notebook battery recall second in month

NEW YORK - Compaq is recalling and replacing 55,000 battery packs sold with certain computers.

It says the notebook batteries could short circuit and catch fire.

The recall is unrelated to a recall of 27,000 notebook batteries Dell Computer announced this month.

"Our batteries are manufactured by Sony," said Compaq spokesman Mike Hockey.

The flawed Dell notebook batteries were made by Sanyo Electric.

"In the manufacture of the batteries, a little pin that goes into the circuit board and is supposed to go into a piece of solder punctured the circuit board itself," said Mr Hockey.

Customers who bought the battery packs in Armada E500 and V300 notebooks would be eligible to receive two free battery packs for each recalled battery.

The recalled batteries could be identified by a date code and serial number on the white label to the right of the battery connector.

Compaq said the battery packs were distributed worldwide in notebooks, as separate options and as replacement spares.

The company had found a defect in one battery pack made between June 2 and July 10 this year.

This failed battery pack overheated and released some smoke, damaging the notebook computer.

Customers can go to www.compaq.com/products/notebooks/batteryrecall for more information about the recall.

On October 14, Dell said it was recalling about 27,000 batteries sold with certain notebook computers, saying the batteries could short circuit and catch fire, even when not in use.

"They don't exactly spontaneously combust," said a Dell spokesman. "Whether it is in use or not, a battery by definition has some energy in it."

The No 2 personal computer company said it had received one report of a battery in a Dell computer short-circuiting and catching fire, resulting in damage to the computer, which was being used by a corporate customer.

Dell said it was not the only computer maker using the Sanyo batteries.

The recalled batteries were found in Dell models Latitude CPiA, CPiR, CPtC, CPtS, CPtV, CPxH and CPxJ, and Inspiron 3700 and 3800.

The batteries were also sold separately and shipped to customers in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa between June 22 and October 4.

More information is at http://support.dell.com/battery

Links:

www.compaq.com/products/notebooks/batteryrecall

http:support.dell.com/battery