Every once in a while, major manufacturers encounter serious problems with their gadgets and especially with their batteries. Apparently, it is not that unusual to see your laptop catch fire and/or simply go “boom.” This time, U.S. CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) announces that HP extends their recall for notebook batteries. The main cause: fire hazard. This would be the second time HP goes through this process, since last year in May, they recalled 70,000 battery units.

Since then, the company has received 38 additional reports of batteries overheating and rupturing. The effects were 11 instances of minor personal injury and 31 instances of minor property damage. Now, because of these complaints, the hazardous batteries are to be removed off the market and to be replaced with brand new, shiny and safe ones, for free, of course. This is what CPSC advises: “Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.”

Many battery models have been found too dangerous to be true and they are currently powering a lot of laptops. The second picture should be more than useful for users of HP notebooks as all the HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario, HP and HP Compaq models are listed there, as well as the bar codes for the fire-friendly batteries.

The replacement program for these batteries produced in China has a dedicated website you can find here and I hope this information is useful for all the Americans reading this from an HP notebook. Here's also what HP advises you to do: “Consumers should immediately remove the batteries referenced above from their notebook computer and contact HP to determine if their battery is included in this recall (even if the battery was previously checked).” I wonder which major company will undergo this type of procedure next.


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