[photopress:burning_laptop.jpg,full,alignright]The flaming battery laptop saga continues. First, Sony had to replace millions of these batteries in assorted makers’ laptops which had a possibility — never a likelihood — of over-heating and exploding. Now, Lenovo has recalled about 205,000 laptop computer batteries. These were not made by Lenovo but by Japan’s Sanyo.
This is the second worldwide battery recall by Lenovo — six months ago it had one after a ThinkPad equipped with a Sony battery caught fire at Los Angeles International Airport — and comes at a critical time as Lenovo, the world’s No. 3 computer maker, tries to gain ground on its better-known competitors.
(At the top were Dell and then Hewlett-Packard. That ranking has now been reversed with Dell slipping to the second spot.)
The recall follows four reports of overheating. In one case, a user suffered minor eye irritation. Lenovo said the batteries can overheat if the laptop is dropped a certain way, striking the battery on a corner edge. An advisory was made with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission but, in fairness, it is somewhat overstating the dangers.
Sanyo officials have defended the batteries saying the problems only result from a strong external impact to the battery and are not triggered by the batteries themselves.
Sanyo said it was supporting Lenovo’s recall and has already taken steps toward ‘working together with Lenovo and putting the first priority on consumer safety.’
The illustration comes up under Lenovo ThinkPad when searched for on Google. It is on the American ConsumerAffairs.com site. But, at a guess, this is not a Lenovo computer. Source: China Daily