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Dell to Recall Laptop Batteries Today

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 August 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Michelle Kessler and Jayne O'Donnell

No. 1 PC-maker Dell announced today that it will recall 4.1 million laptop batteries because they can overheat and cause fires.

The batteries were sold from April 2004 to July 2006. They came with more than 30 laptop models and also were sold separately.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it has received six reports of the batteries overheating and causing property damage in the USA. The same type of battery dramatically caught fire at a Japanese conference earlier this year, an incident that became famous when photographs were posted online.

"We are advising consumers to take this seriously," says CPSC acting Chairman Nancy Nord. "It can go to flame pretty quickly."

Although the batteries bear the Dell name, they were made by Sony. Such manufacturing relationships are common in the PC industry, though considered trade secrets and rarely disclosed. Sony also sells batteries to many other PC makers but won't reveal which ones, Sony spokesman Rick Clancy says.

CPSC is still in talks with Sony to see whether other recalls are necessary. Dell's chief rival, No. 2 PC maker Hewlett-Packard, says it is not affected.

The problem is caused in part by tiny metal fragments that got inside batteries during the manufacturing process. In most cases, the worst they do is short the battery out, preventing it from working, Clancy says. But they occasionally damage safeguards designed to prevent overheating, he says.

CPSC says there have been 176 incidents of laptop batteries and power cords overheating from 2003 to 2005. That includes smoke and some fires. Dell, HP, Apple and others have issued recalls in recent years.

Sony could not say whether any of the previous incidents were caused by the current problem. That's because the battery-manufacturing process evolves over time, and battery problems can vary depending on a laptop's design, Clancy says. Sony has taken steps to make sure that the problem is fixed, though Clancy wouldn't provide specifics. Dell is still a customer, he says.

Tech analysts expect Sony to absorb most recall costs, though Sony wouldn't say. Tech analyst Roger Kay at Endpoint Technologies Associates estimates that Sony will end up paying about $103 million in replacement costs. Dell says its costs will not be material.

That's a blow to Sony, which has been struggling to remake its image after a series of missteps. The company announced 10,000 job cuts last year after losing market share in televisions and portable music players. "Sony's having a pretty bad couple of years," says independent tech analyst Rob Enderle. "This is going to do some damage."

(c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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