ThinkPad Laptops Latest Hit by Sony Battery Recall

IBM and Lenovo Group today recalled 526,000 Sony batteries for ThinkPad notebooks, becoming the latest notebook vendors to act on fire-prone power sources.

Also today, Sony issued a statement saying that it would initiate a global replacement program for some battery packs used in laptops. Details of the extent of the program were not immediately available.

Lenovo joins Dell, Toshiba, and Apple in recalls of millions of Sony manufactured batteries.

Lenovo and IBM advised owners of the batteries, which were sold worldwide with ThinkPads and as replacement units between February 2005 and September 2006, to return them to Lenovo for a free replacement. Lenovo took over IBM's PC division in May 2005.

Owners in the U.S. can call a Lenovo recall hotline at +1-800-426-7378; numbers for customers in other countries can be found here.

The voluntary recall was announced in conjunction with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission after reports this month of a ThinkPad smoking and catching fire as a user was boarding an airliner at Los Angeles International Airport, the companies said in a statement.

The batteries recalled Thursday were sold worldwide with T Series (T43, T43p and T60), R Series (R51e, R52, R60 and R60e) and X Series (X60 and X60s) ThinkPads or as replacement batteries for those units.

Thanks to Stephen Lawson of IDG News Service for the information.