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HP Recalls 50,000 Lithium-Ion Laptop Batteries Over Fire Risk (consumerreports.org)
HP announced this week that it is recalling the lithium-ion batteries in more than 50,000 laptops because of the danger of fire in cases of battery malfunction. From a report: "These batteries have the potential to overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to customers," the company said in a statement. "For this reason, it is extremely important to check whether your battery is affected." The recall affects the battery, not the entire computer. Consumers should run HP's Validation Utility software to determine if their battery has been recalled. If the battery needs to be replaced, they should then install an update that will put the device in Battery Safe Mode, which will discharge the battery and prevent it from being charged until it's replaced. This update will allow consumers to continue using the computers safely with AC power while they wait for a new battery. The recall affects batteries sold with, or as accessories for, the following models: HP Probook 640 G2, HP ProBook 640 G3, HP ProBook 645 G2, HP ProBook 645 G3, HP ProBook 650 G2, HP ProBook 650 G3, HP ProBook 655 G2, HP ProBook 655 G3, HP ZBook 17 G3, HP ZBook 17 G4, HP ZBook Studio G3, HP x360 310 G2, HP Pavilion x360, HP ENVY m6, and HP 11 Notebook PC.
HP is doing the right thing by disabling the battery and recalling the the defective. Instead of stone walling, denying a problem, or shifting the blame. What has the world come to?
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
So customers (like me) who immediately removed Windows and the HP bloatware from their laptop in favor of a free operating system must reinstall Windows to find out if their battery is affected?
HP doesn't support Linux so as soon as you removed Windows, you are on your own. Linux is an edge case which most companies don't support and you know this so quit whining about it
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
According to the FAQ page, if you can't install the validation tool, you should contact HP through the support form: https://batteryprogram687.ext....
When someone says, "Any fool can see
and it's an easy swap unlike apple need to re glue screen to change battery there
Plenty of options here:
1) Install Windows 10 to an external hard drive. Run the utility before Windows Activation kicks in.
2) Contact them through the battery recall web site and give them your laptop serial number and battery barcode number (yeah, you might have to take it apart - what do you expect?)
"Pro" is codeword these days for a glued-shut sealed unit with soldered components. I guess they base "pro" solely on how easy it is to carry around all day.
Why do they need all that info? They could just put a list of serial or lot numbers up.
If I was a cynic I might suspect they're trying to put people off.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
They almost certainly weren't smart enough to keep track of which battery went into which laptop.
If they were trying to put people off, they would have made an EFI-bootable USB image. Would have been better for Linux users and worse for most of their customers.
I'm surprised that hardware level stuff like this doesn't have a BIOS level utility for reading serial numbers, configuring hardware, etc. Or their own little HP support s/w partition.
Have gnu, will travel.
Notice how many of these models are also "Pro" series
They will be re-naming this the "Doh!" series.
Have gnu, will travel.
But are today's laptops intelligent enough that they sort of bypass the battery when plugged into an electrical outlet?
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HP may not support Linux, but this is a hardware problem. What does this validation utility do? Does it read a serial number from the battery's microcontroller? If it does, the serial number is probably also printed on the battery and this whole thing is just to make it easier to access for regular users. AC is right to be pissed off about this.
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HP doesn't support Linux, which is an unsupported edge case, so they aren't going to write an application for Linux. As AC's laptop didn't come with Linux and HP doesn't sell it with Linux and doesn't support it with Linux, explain why AC has a right to be pissed off. It is the equivalent to buying a Jaguar, replacing the engine with a small block Chevy V8, then being upset that the Jaguar dealer has no way to tell if the engine is causing shifting problems for the transmission.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Replacing the OS on a computer does not change the hardware, your analogy is flawed.
But it's also true that HP has no requirement to make their utility for Linux, since as you say they only sell the laptop with Windows.
Another example: maybe he needed to install an older version of Windows for reason X, and the utility only works on Windows 10 so he couldn't run it either.
But my point still remains, if all the utility does is read a serial number in a microcontroller, number that also happens to be printed on the battery casing then the support page should also mention that, for these cases.
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People complain every time there's a summary that leaves out key details. This one includes the model numbers. Thought it only right to give praise where due.
Nope, no sig
The point of the analogy was that making a major and unsupported change to a product or device effectively guarantees that the manufacturer isn't going to support what one has done to the product or device.
I could have said "It's Linux. Decompile the app and write a version for Linux." instead of actually explaining why it is irrational to expect HP to support something he did to his computer that they don't support when he asked if he had to reinstall Windows to check it. The simple fact is that OPs complaint is that HP isn't supporting something he did that they never supported doing in the first place. It is quite possible that OP voided his warranty by removing Windows and installing Linux and that is why they aren't bothering with providing a list of whatever. He may very well have made his machine ineligible for the recall.
Importantly, you pointed out that this is about hardware but the utility only runs on their delivered, supported platform. Show me where it says they must support something that is not their delivered platform.
Finally, there is the fact that many of these devices are not considered user serviceable and the batteries not user replaceable. They will want the laptop to go to a service center for it to be changed.
HP is providing battery replacement services by an authorized technician at no cost.
They don't want users opening the devices to look at the batteries and possibly breaking something in the process then complaining about it and demanding a new computer. And, once it goes to the service center, it may very well come back with Windows installed on it.
The simple fact is that OPs complaint is that HP isn't supporting something he did that they never supported doing in the first place. It is quite possible that OP voided his warranty by removing Windows and installing Linux and that is why they aren't bothering with providing a list of whatever. He may very well have made his machine ineligible for the recall. And, even if he didn't void his warranty, he still has no reason to expect them to support anything other than what they delivered including providing a list of serial numbers for batteries involved in the recall.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
One of the things it asks for is the serial number. If they can't find it from that I'm not seeing how mother's maiden name, favourite actor & shoe size will help.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
They almost certainly weren't smart enough to keep track of which battery went into which laptop.
Citation? Otherwise I'll make the exact opposite statement and give the follow:
Manufacturers, particularly larger integrators like Dell, buy tons of parts from suppliers and assemble them into their finished products. Tracking what batches of supplies are where in the production chain and what equipment they wind up in is critical to finding and tracking problems so they can be addressed...well so they can do a cost analysis of broad replacement vs. individual and similar.
Based on experience (20+ years in end-user IT support) this holds true any time I've contacted my manufacturers regarding recurring issues. In that regard, I expect Dell will shortly announce something similar.
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.