The IDG News Service reported today that Toshiba has launched another round of lithium-ion laptop battery recalls. While only 10,000 batteries are affected this time, the company said it decided to carry out the recall because of incidents in the past several months that resulted in fires. (Reuters is reporting that the actual number is three fires over the past ten months.)
The company had a much larger recall of Li-ion batteries last year for an unrelated manufacturing defect. Both recalls are related to battery packs manufactured by Sony.
However, Toshiba warns that even if you participated in the earlier battery swap back then, you still need to deal with this recall if you have one of the affected batteries.
The recall is limited and involves two laptop models -- Satellite A100/A105 and
Tecra A7 ? as well as two accessory/replacement batteries ? models numbered PA3451U-1BRS and PA3399U-2BRS. If you don't have a battery that is on the list, then you're not affected.
If you have one of the affected batteries, Toshiba will replace it for you free of charge. In the meantime, the company advises that you remove the battery pack from the laptop and operate the computer on wall current. (The replacement process requires that you send the potentially faulty battery in before they send you a new one.)
Toshiba has posted a small application on its Web site that will test your laptop to see if it's got a battery that's affected by the recall. It has also posted information on how to identify whether your laptop is affected manually. You can find those links as well as further information at Toshiba's support site.
