Sony Announces Global Battery Recall

snafu109 writes "Since the laptop battery recalls initiated by Dell, Apple, IBM/Lenovo, Toshiba & Fujitsu, some may have wondered whether the entire lot should be recalled. Well, over at MarketWatch, a new article reports just that. 'Sony said Thursday it will initiate a global replacement program for certain battery packs that use its lithium-ion cells in notebook computers in order to address concerns related to recent over-heating incidents.' In related news, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has released some tips on how to lower the risk of your laptop batteries exploding, no matter who the manufacturer."

Comments

quote

[notea42]

Favorite Quote from the Consumer Products Safety Comission: "Computer batteries can get hot during normal use. Do not use your computer on your lap." Not much good as a LAPtop, then.

Re:quote

[Chode2235]

Thats why they are all called notebooks now. You aren't supposed to put them on your lap, but keep your notes in them...

Re:quote

[badfish99]

No, don't use it on your lap, unless you want to suffer the fate of this man, who burned a ... er ... sensitive part of his anatomy.
If the battery bursts into flames, you definitely don't want it on your lap.

I sense a conspiracy!

[general scruff]

Ok, here's the deal. Now sony is going to have millions of highly explosive batteries. Who thinks this might not be a good thing...

Today: Rootkits, and DRM
Tomorrow: Holding the world hostage with boiling lithium..

eeek...

Re:I sense a conspiracy!

[fistfullast33l]

I for one will never give into their demands. My Dell will never use DRM'd mus...BOOM... %^%@13#^$3@#$*^&^NO CARRIER

Further Details...

[k4_pacific]

Sony announced today that, as part of their Global Replacement Program, they will be replacing the entire globe. "Yes, we screwed up so badly, that it is cheaper to leave and start a new planet than to fix everything that Sony has done wrong," said a Sony representative. Among Sony's past transgressions include rootkit-enabled laptop batteries, exploding CDs, and firing Nellie McKay. "On our new planet, we will build a Sonyful utopia, a planet by Sony, for Sony forever. A DRMed paradise for all to behold."

More tips to prevent explosion!

[shoolz]

Wow, those suggestions were really useful and non-obvious. But here's the few big ones they missed that you might not know about:

• Never rip a battery in half (while the laptop is running);
• Do not boil your battery or place it in a dishwasher;
• Never use your battery as a dog chew-toy;
• If you have a spare battery, never staple it to your laptop case - store it in a side pocket instead.

OK, I'll say it

[PrvtBurrito]

PS3 fiasco
Rootkit
Laptop batteries
BluRay
RIAA/MPAA support


Sony is looking more and more like a company that is poorly led and one that maybe can't be trusted. These are all (so far) huge public relation disasters. I think they need to rethink their strategy, in the meantime, I will be politely avoiding their products.

Confused? Worried?

[mac123]

And yet no recall on the batteries in my Sony Vaio laptop?

The worst way for this to happen to Sony

[ConfusedSelfHating]

Not only do they have to do a full recall, but it gets dragged out through months of bad press. People will be calling their relatives asking if their laptops have Sony batteries in them. Do you think the laptop companies are going to blame anyone but Sony?

Sony should have seen this coming and bit the bullet at that point. This has turned into a PR disaster. Most people don't understand the concept of a root kit, but they do understand "can't bring laptop on a plane, because it might bring the plane down" (Virgin Atlantic did ban several brands of laptops because of this issue) or "laptop bursts into flame, everybody blames Sony". It's a very simple concept and everybody can understand it. When technology doesn't work properly or worse becomes a hazard, people become angry and scared. And the last thing a company wants is to have its name associated with fear and pain.

low incidence

[Red Flayer]

From the tips-to-prevent-fires link:

There are tens of millions of portable computers in use. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is aware of at least 47 incidents involving smoke or fire associated with notebook computers, from January 2001 through August 2006.

So, taking a low-ball figure of 20 million for total notebooks in use from 1/01 thorugh 8/06, that's still just over 2 incidents per million notebooks... I wonder how many incidents there would be per million notebook-use-hours.

To contrast, the rail system in the US was very pround when, in 1993, they were able to reduce reportable safety incidents below 3.0 per million train miles.

What I'm trying to say is that people are getting very worked up over a not-very-big deal (not that the goal shouldn't be 0 incidents per million hours) -- and considering the minor harm that such fires are likely to cause, is it worth the economic and financial impact of these recalls?

Re:why

[Amouth]

I have noticed that until now they never recalled them for their own laptops... i wonder who they get their battiers from

Why do the explode?

[dayyan]

Just in case some of you are wondering why these batteries explode. A scientific summary would be: They become overcharged.

And if you are wondering how overcharging can create an explosion. Another scientific summary would be: If you put more energy into an environment which cannot handle it. It becomes unstable.

If you are wondering why an environment becomes unstable when too much energy is involved: It comes down to atomic science.

Wondering why it comes down to atomic science? You might want to think about going back to school, we need more scientific minds like you.

Sony Xplod

[lynchmenow]

Why don't they just market their batteries under the Sony Xplod brand?

Check your battery manufacturer in Linux

[MrBoombasticfantasti]

To check the model number and manufacturer of your battery:

cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0