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HP Recalls 135,000 Laptop Batteries

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the also-replacing-laps dept.

caffeine_monkey writes "AP is reporting that Hewlett Packard is recalling 135,000 notebook batteries because they occasionally overheat and melt. Affected models are HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario, HP Compaq and Compaq Evo. More details are on the HP support site. From their FAQ: Is it safe to buy HP notebooks? Absolutely. HP fully stands behind the products it makes."

29 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. no one is going top care.... by hector_uk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    see how no one is going to care about this, but when it happens to apple it's on ever news site and used as flame ammo by every apple hater, just the same as the ipod flaws that are shared by almost every player.

    1. Re:no one is going top care.... by Comatose51 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm sure many Slashdotter share the same experience as I have in high school. Whenever I made a mistake in math or science class, everyone just piles in and ridicule even though most of them can't come close to handling some of the problems. When you're at the top, everyone holds you to much higher standards than their own. Take it as a compliment.

      --
      EvilCON - Made Famous by /.
    2. Re:no one is going top care.... by heinousjay · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The only people that think Apple is renowned for extraordinary quality are those that close their eyes intentionally to the flaws in Apple products. There are plenty of us out here not fooled into thinking rounded-corner white plastic means anything more than decent corporate design.

      In reference to the GP, the people on this site pile on Apple because of the zealotry. Calm down about how this particular company is the second coming of whatever, and people will calm down about how it isn't.

      Round up the apple zealot downmods! Nail me, please!

      --
      Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
    3. Re:no one is going top care.... by Klivian · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'd guess you are right, no one is going to care about this except those sorry bastards having their laptop on their lap when the battery overheat and melts.

    4. Re:no one is going top care.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      This post has so many grammar/punctuation/spelling mistakes crammed into a single paragraph that I think it's going to collapse into some kind of moron-singularity.

      The errors in your first post are understandable since you were rushed to get the first post, but this is idiotic. If you can't be spared to time to proofread, then do not post. Please.

  2. now and forever by Anonymouse+Cownerd · · Score: 5, Funny
    The battery packs were sold internationally from March 2004 through May 20005 by national and regional electronics stores and on Internet sites.

    So they foresee that all future batteries until 20005 will need to be recalled?

    --
    http://www.rayn.net . Funny. Stuff.
  3. HP stands behind their product by mousse-man · · Score: 4, Funny

    "HP fully stands behind the products it makes."

    Possibly with a big plate of chobham armor in-between?

    1. Re:HP stands behind their product by steve_l · · Score: 2, Insightful

      aah you worry too much.

      I just checked the batteries on my hp nc6000 laptop and was disappointed to see they werent part of the recall. Disappointed? Yes, because being a year old, the batteries only go up to 90% and 95% charge respectively. Getting free replacements would have brought them up to spec; hey I'd have it done every year, although that bit "only use on AC power till your replacement comes in" is a bit inconvenient.

      Incidentally, wearable computers have always had a problem with military use, despite the vision of the soldier with the head-up-display, and the problem was the batteries. A bullet entering the body after passing though a li-ion battery is more poisonous, plus the batteries themselves are a fire risk (do not shoot is implicit in the 'do not penetrate' bit of the disclaimer).

    2. Re:HP stands behind their product by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why not put them in the bottom of your boots? Odds are you wont get shot through there (unless you're prone and shot from behind, which shouldn't happen). Only risk is land mines, and if you step on one of those.. you're already not going to do too well.

      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
    3. Re:HP stands behind their product by rfsayre · · Score: 3, Funny

      "HP fully stands behind the products it makes."

      Does HP make laptops? I was under the impression that their job was to send stickers to Taiwan.

  4. HP Recalls 135,000 Laptop Batteries by TarrySingh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    and the recently fired 15000 employees!

    --
    Scott McNealy to Michael: "Suck my Sun!" Michael Dell to Scott : "Lick my Dell!"
    1. Re: HP Recalls 135,000 Laptop Batteries by darkitecture · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe they need the batteries to fuel their 15000-strong robot replacement workforce!

      I for one welcome our robotic HP overlords.

  5. Are they sure? by gunpowda · · Score: 4, Funny
    Is it safe to buy HP notebooks? Absolutely.

    Notice it's 'buy' rather than 'use'! No wonder they can state it so definitely.

  6. HP stands fully behind its products by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    At a safe distance of 50-100 feet.

  7. Also from HP's FAQ by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 4, Funny

    Q: I don't speak Hindi, can I still call Tech Support?

    A: No.

    --
    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  8. Rumor Mill by smvp6459 · · Score: 3, Informative

    According to someone on a compaq/linux list to which I subscribe:

    "Since there have been at least 16 incidences of batteries catching fire, HP
    will replace batteries with serial numbers beginning with GC, IA, L0 or L1.
    These include many batteries shipped with the HP/Compaq R3000, zv5000 and
    nx9105 models (my nx9105 had an 8 cell battery with a serial number starting
    with GC).

    http://www.hp.com/support/BatteryReplacement

    This again confirms that the batteries truly suck, at least the 8 cell ones.
    At least I'll get a new one."

  9. Not a Bad Thing by Comatose51 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    "From their FAQ: Is it safe to buy HP notebooks? Absolutely. HP fully stands behind the products it makes."

    The more cynical ones are going to dismiss this as just marketing BS but I'm glad HP is at willing to admit their mistake and rectify it. At least they're not trying to pull a Ford Pinto here. Even in the computer industry there are companies who would pretend there is no problem and hope it goes away. My laptop had a defective hard drive and when I called support they blamed it on the fact that I leave my computer on all the time (it wasn't IBM but a much smaller brand).

    --
    EvilCON - Made Famous by /.
  10. it burns, it burns! by dhallilama · · Score: 4, Funny

    notebook... usually in the lap... not a good place for it to be if the batts overheat and melt.... "honey, know all that money we were wasting on birth control? wont need it anymore...."

  11. Youch.. by slideroll · · Score: 2, Funny

    "HP fully stands behind the products it makes." That's because they've fused to their laps.

  12. I have one of these by beaverbrother · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So both my mom and sister have a Compaq Presario 2100, one of the affected models, but according to HP's site they don't have the issue thats being recalled. One of the computers recently died due to melting near the power supply. The other is like 150 degrees all the time, and has a battery pack that has bubbles of plastic from the melting and has had a number of labels melted off. So in what way do my computers not have overheating problems? I just spend $1500 on my sister's computer to replace it because it is no longer usable or fixable.

  13. Yawn by tktk · · Score: 3, Funny
    This has happened to companies so often now that it's only interesting news to the people affected. Let's think of a way to make it exciting.

    I suggest we start a betting pool and take bet on who's next and when.

  14. HP stands behind the products it makes? by Biotech9 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    don't make me laugh.

    I am always fixing peoples PCs, I don't mind, most of the time it's drivers or spyware. I had a good friend come over two weeks ago with a Compaq presario 1000 (compaq now owned by HP and HP responsible for their products).

    The (slightly over 1 year old) laptop would not turn on. No response at all, when you hit the power, it made the tiniest of 'whirrs' and did nothing. So I guessed it was a broken Video card or bad ram. It was something I wasn't going to touch anyway. I decided just on a whim (while we waited for the kettle to boil) to google. Turns out this is a very common problem with this X1000 model. Compaq used over-clocked 9000 ATI cards driven as 9200s. They overheated and over time worked themselves out of the motherboard. A quick initial fix was to press the 67Y keys very hard. I did it, and the laptop booted.

    Problem is, this is not a repair, apparently the problem will repeat until that fix doesn't work. This occurred in Sweden, and in Sweden the law is if the problem is manufacturers, you have a 3 year guarantee. So my friend gets her cash back (to buy a powerbook or Toshiba on my recommendation). All the poor bastards in the US (who have a forum to complain about this issue) are out of luck, HP have ignored them. They sold mislabelled and unfit-for-purpose hardware and shafted their customers. Most of the comments I read about this (frankly terribly designed and ugly) laptop were all saying "never HP,never again".

    Hp are not the company they were 10 years ago.

    1. Re:HP stands behind the products it makes? by spisska · · Score: 2, Informative

      On a related note, I've seen three Compaqs fail in the last two or three months, and none were older than a year and a half. On my notebook (Compaq Evo N800c), the HDD failed I suspect from overheating because of the video card. On one Presario desktop, the HDD failed without any notice from a corrupt boot sector, and on another Presario desktop, the CPU fan and heatsink assembly just broke (cheap plastic clamps).

      I also found plenty of things inside the Presarios that just made me angry -- like the fact that there was an AGP circuit on the mobo but HP didn't put in a slot, and the fact that the case has a fan mount, but there's no 3-pin case fan connector on the mobo. That and the cheap CPU cooler assembly -- it's not an expensive part, but when it fails it can damage some very expensive parts.

      Shoddy design, corner-cutting, and hardware that really should last longer. You'll have to count me in the "never HP, never again" camp.

    2. Re:HP stands behind the products it makes? by GerbilSoft · · Score: 2

      (to buy a powerbook or Toshiba on my recommendation)

      I definitely would not recommend a Toshiba, after having my experience with the Satellite 5105. I had three problems that were covered under the first year warranty (motherboard died, power supply died, then the video card died), then the next year the hard drive died. A few weeks ago, the video card died again, and not only is it not under warranty, I can't find a replacement card at a decent price.

      To top it off, Toshiba was sued over the Satellite 5005 (the previous model) because of a hardware flaw that caused it to overheat constantly. A friend of mine has 3 of the 5005s, and managed to get $1500 as part of a class-action lawsuit.

      On the plus side, the 5105 has the best speakers I've ever heard in a laptop computer. I might just take the speakers and hack them into my next laptop. :)

  15. Melting battery is not too bad... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's better than an exploding battery. Especially if you're on an airplane. :P

  16. Kyun? by vistic · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well... all I can say to that is...

    Kyun aap hindi bol sakte nahin hain?

    Eh? Answer me that... kyun? KYUN !?

  17. HP and defects by phorm · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It seems that the defect has to be potentially life-threatening for HP to react. I have an HP ZD7000 laptop. There is a known fault in something to do with the RAM controller wherein - if you have the secondary RAM slot filled - the laptop will reboot or shutdown spontaneously in instances of applications that have heavy memory usage (I'm assuming those that have requirements of memory from both slots). Generally the problems have been noticed in photoshop, but I've had them occur in GIMP or some games. Others have been experiencing the same problems. Adobe has a warning on this.

    So I've contacted HP technical support about this. I've talked on the phone, and then by email. The representative from HP assured me that no such issue existed, and we back-and-forthed for awhile. Eventually, I found this article on HP's own website. When I emailed it to the HP rep, he prompted stopped answering my emails.


    Maybe if my battery had exploded I would have gotten better support from HP, but it seems it has to be a big issue for them to do anything about it.

    "HP fully stands behind the products it makes?" Maybe, but only when it looks like it might lose them money due to lawsuits or poses a health risk.

  18. Not always Interchangeable parts in Desktops by Vandil+X · · Score: 2, Informative
    Many parts of laptops, especially the battery and power supply, seem to be prone to failure, and unlike a normal computer, these parts are not interchangable (part of the reason for this is that many people don't realize that computers parts are interchangable, but think that their computer has a special "Dell" Hard Drive), so if you have a three year old computer with a dead or broken battery, you are going to spend a lot of time on e-Bay and a lot of money to replace it.
    As a sysadmin, I've opened up plenty of new & old Dell desktop computers and found proprietary power supplies, CPU sockets, and (obviously) the motherboard. It's not like you can stop by CompUSA or Fry's and pick up replacements. This is also shared among notebook computers and servers.

    Things like RAM modules and hard disks are certainly standardized parts and replaceable on all three types of computers.

    The key to owning any computer, portable or not, is that if you aren't personally equipped to service the machine yourself, purchase the extended warranty plan. Dell offers 3 year warranties for an extra cost. Apple does the same with AppleCare.
    --
    Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
  19. X1000 Affected or not? by Tim+U. · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The CPSC site lists the X1000 model as affected by the recall, but the HP site does not.

    Are they trying to screw X1000 owners out of replacement batteries, or did they discover the X1000 battery packs are not effected?

    I guess I'll have to wait till Monday to call and find out.