Washington – Sony’s battery problems cropped up again today as Lenovo and IBM recalled 526,000 Thinkpad notebook batteries made by Sony Energy Devices.
About 168,500 of the battery packs were sold in the U.S. between February 2005 and September 2006 as either an accessory or included with a Thinkpad.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Lenovo received one confirmed report of a battery overheating and causing a fire that damaged the computer. The incident, which occurred within an airport terminal as the user was boarding an airplane, caused enough smoking and sparking that a fire extinguisher was used to put it out. There was minor property damage and no injuries were reported.
The recalled lithium-ion batteries were sold with or sold separately to be used with the following ThinkPad notebook computers: T Series (T43, T43p, T60); R Series (R51e, R52, R60, R60e); and X Series (X60, X60s). The CPSC lists the part and model numbers.
Lenovo has set up a Web site to handle returns.
In August Dell and Apple recalled millions of Sony made batteries and earlier this month Toshiba issued a recall for a non-safety related issue.
