HP recalls another 15,000 Chinese-made laptop batteries

26 May 2009

Hewlett-Packard Co, which last week recalled 70,000 laptop batteries in the US because of a fire hazard, today said it is recalling 15,000 laptop batteries in China as well because of a danger they could overheat.

HP, the world's largest PC maker, said it will replace the batteries used in HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario and HP Compaq model notebooks as they could overheat in extreme conditions and pose a fire hazard, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its website (www.aqsiq.gov.cn).

Incidentally, the lithium-ion batteries being recalled by HP both in the US and China were made in China.

While no comment was available from HP, these laptop PCs were manufactured between late 2007 and early 2008, according to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

The CPSC had cited two reports of the batteries catching fire due to overheating, causing minor property damage.

The CPSC provided a list of the computer models using the batteries on its web site CPSC.gov. It said HP was providing free replacement batteries.