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IBM and Lenovo Recall Sony Batteries
digihome writes "IBM and Lenovo are recalling 168,500 ThinkPad notebook battery packs in the United States and another 357,000 worldwide, saying the Sony-made lithium-ion batteries can 'cause overheating, posing a fire hazard to consumers.'" The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has more details.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
this blows.
Out of all big Sony battery customers this leaves only Acer and HP. Everybody else has recalled. Interesting - how long till they recall the remainders (they did partial "fire" recalls last year).
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
...after reading this little story.
I have a battery from Sanyo, unfortunately, so no free, new battery for me :(
So why were they so bad for recalling the batteries months before everyone else again?
Or I guess a better, and more on-topic, question would be: Why is it taking everyone else so long to innitiate a recall?
I would never have guessed.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I guess they can't do anything right anymore... Maybe they'll have better luck next year.
Their announcement here.
This involves systems sold between February 2005 and September 2006, including:
ThinkPad R Series (R51e, R52, R60, R60e)
ThinkPad T Series (T43, T43p, T60)
ThinkPad X Series (X60, X60s)
Yes, my one month old T60 too is on the list. Though I will wait out till the initial rush dies out.
Anonymous Cow^^^^^^^^^Professional Dell Blogger
When I think of Sony, I think of rootkits, exploding batteries and a delayed PS3. Sony has some significant problems. I don't think I want to buy anything connected with the name of Sony.
If not, why not? Are they not prone to the same defect that other OEMs have been subjected to? Or is Sony just being complacent? Either way, it's not a good thing.
Tyler: The average payout of a settlement is A, the probability of occurence is B, and the cost of a recall is C. IF A*BC We don't do one! Lady On Plane: What car company do you work for? Tyler: A major one.
GENERATION 27: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
From the CPSC website:
Incidents/Injuries: Lenovo has received one confirmed report of a battery overheating and causing a fire that damaged the notebook computer. The incident, which occurred within an airport terminal as the user was boarding an airplane, caused enough smoking and sparking that a fire extinguisher was used to put it out. There was minor property damage and no injuries were reported.
Can this become a threat to airline security?
Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in trouble again.
It was a by-product of the latest line of Lenovo notebooks.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
No, Sony is doing just fine. They are a massive company with their fingers in thousands of pies. Being massive, bad things happen all the time - kind of like New York City is massive and has hundreds of car accidents every day.
Sony does most things pretty well, but some things wrong (backdoor malware on music CD's is another example.)
Heh, I get Kudo's here in Dell if someone writes something nice to my manager with those summary e-mails I send out to people. Yay for Canadian tech support agents! Now all they need to do is get more diverse or cheaper caffeteria food here at the call center, and I'll pop with joy.
I think this really points out just how big of a problem energy sources are.
We are having major problems with fossil fuels and the impact the byproducts of getting energy that way. Batteries, which are very important to many forms of electric cars, are very difficult to scale up without being dangerous in a small percentage of cases.
Whomever finds the silver bullet of energy will become the next richest group in the world (and incidently save the planet from boiling).
its a copyright violation. i fully support the DMCA
TRoLL.
this site fucking sucks
malda you suck
SlOW DOWn C0wBoI!!
Yes, and -1 kudos to all Dell bashers! Truth is slow, but eventually arrives.
$ grep model
Then compare the output to this list:The value returned is the ASM P/N (*not* the FRU!)
You aren't remembered for doing what is expected of you
You forgot the first rule.
If you go look back at the story, you see that Dell admits to having known about the problem 10 months before the recall and was accused of worse by a former tech at the time of recall. They had the volume of sales required to notice the problem but did nothing useful for at least a year.
It is too early to accuse other makers of wrong doing. It's possible that Dell did something to aggravate the problem. It's also possible that no one else had the volume required to see it.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Hmmm, Sony batteries bad. Are they still upset about the failure of Betamax?
I remember when the Dell recall was initiated the mailing list I am on proclaimed "oh my god dell laptops explode, dell sucks"
...hah
when Apple recalled the general consensus was: "yay new battery!"
I think Sony has succeeded to implement a DRM rootkit into their batteries... One illegal MP3 or movie and BANG !!!
Linux users on IBM / Lenovo laptops...
/proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info |grep OEM
cat
Mine says :
OEM info: SANYO
which the battery number entry confirmed, I don't need to replace.
My output is listed below and does not appear to be affected ...
The list of recalled models is here.
those are only half as dangerous as sony powered lithium-ion batteries
Old tech joke:
Q. What does Microsoft call customers?
A. Beta testers
New tech joke...
Q. What does Sony call customers?
A. EOD. (for all you non-military types that Explosive Ordinance Disposal)
Place a curse on Sony
I've yet to hear about recalls for laptop batteries in actual Sony laptops. Are the batteries actually better?
Most comprehensive? Please explain.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I was in a music store last week looking at some CDs. What happened? They used to just have the record label and the "compact DISC" logo on them. Now they have all this compatibility information about what version of Windows/OSX you need and how much RAM.
Unfortunately Sony seems to being merging all their fingers into one pie at the moment in the form of the PS3. If Blu-ray (aka "Blurry") fails, the PS3 is hurt. If the PS3 fails, Blu-ray is hurt. Look at the PSP. It is being held back by the UMD format. All it does it kill their battery life and give them long load times. If they hadn't tried to push both in one package, the PSP might not be the laughing stock of the industry. Say, don't the PS3 controllers have lithium ion rechargeable batteries in them? I wonder if they use the same patented technology and quality manufacturing methods as those in the Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Thinkpads... Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a house fire.
Sony has announced that the PS3's price will increase another $100 at each price point. A sony spokebot said this is entirely unrelated to the fact that they're up to their asses in explodable batteries and red ink.
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
I have 3 T43s and and 2 T42s. I swapped batteries between two laptops earlier this week and I can't remember which ones :(
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
Hmmm, looks like Sony beat the Chinese to it and developed the first fusion batteries...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Sony's 2 stage DRM plan:
Stage 1 "Operation Rootkit"
Stage 2 "Operation Fry The Thieving Bastards"
OK so maybe I'm being odd here, but why no recall from Sony on their own laptops?
Don't they use their own batteries, or are they somehow different to the ones they sell to other people???
Unfortunately Sony seems to being merging all their fingers into one pie at the moment in the form of the PS3.
Um, No. I don't think you realize how large and diverse Sony is.
Sony is in three main lines of business: consumer electronics (the Walkman, TVs, boomboxes, playstation, stereos), professional and business electronics (telephones and telecommunications, computer peripherals, semiconductors, broadcasting equipment, medical imaging, display systems, factory automation systems), and entertainment (music and movies, movie theaters, CD-ROMs).
Somehow I don't think the PS3 is going to play a large part of Sony's overall business. In fact, I would expect it to remain down in the 1% range at best.
I wonder when people are going to realize that modern laptop batteries are simply difficult to design because of the ridiculous heat involved both in the battery, but also in the chips, which put out more heat but are designed into a thinner and thinner case -- and stop blaming companies when the thin, powerful, long lasting laptop they demand from manufacturers has a problem with fires?
Is that about every laptop manufacturer on the planet yet in the past year or so? Can we finally just accept that you're going to need either less processing power, less battery power, or a bit more bulk for airflow, if you want any sort of promises about safety from any given manufacturer?
It's been a long time.