Sony battery sparked during recall Fujitsu engineer spots exploding batteryBy Nick Farrell: Monday 30 October 2006, 06:59
A FUJITSU ENGINEER who was called around to a punter's house to pick up a Sony battery as part of the company recall got a bit more than he bargained for.
According to a spokesFujitsu the engineer was retrieving the laptop when it started to overheat and started to spew forth sparks.
The laptop's owner received minor injuries in the incident, which is under investigation, the spokesFujutsu said. We must wonder why anyone needed to turn on the computer to retrieve the battery in the first place.
Fujitsu is recalling more than 280,000 lithium-ion laptop batteries made by Sony because microscopic metal particles left inside the battery, can cause them to short circuit. There have been several cases of the batteries overheating and bursting into flames.
Fujitsu admits its laptop 'overheated and sparked'By Tony Smith
30th October 2006 10:06 GMT
A Fujitsu-made notebook has caught fire in Japan, the manufacturer admitted late last week. The incendiary incident is the first of its kind to be be officially recognised in a machine lacking a Dell, Apple or ThinkPad logo, and should sound a warning to other vendors caught up in this year's massive battery recall.
Fujitsu was notified of the notebook's self-combustion on 24 October, it said, after a customer reported their machine "overheated and sparked". An investigation revealed the laptop had contained a Sony-made battery covered by the recall Fujitsu put in place on 4 October.
Fujitsu said the event was the "first and only" report of its kind it has received, and that the incident was an "extremely rare case".
Nonetheless, it warned all notebook users whose laptops may be included in the battery recall - full details here -
http://www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/n20061017-01.html?www.reghardware.co.ukshould remove the battery from their machines immediately, "unless absolutely necessary".
To date, many notebook vendors who've recalled Sony-made batteries claim to have received no reports of their machines going up in smoke. Fujitsu's admission suggests that they've simply been more lucky than some of the firms who initiated early battery recalls. ®
