HP Recalls 15,000 Batteries in China

Hot on the heels of recalling 70,000 notebook computer batteries the U.S., Hewlett Packard is recalling 15,000 more in China due to a risk of overheating.

Last week Hewlett-Packard launched a recall for some 70,000 notebook computer batteries distributed in the United States due to a risk of overheating: now, the company is recalling 15,000 notebook computer batteries distributed in China for the same reasons.

The batteries were shipped in HP Pavillion, Compaq Presario, and HP Compaq notebook, and manufactured in late 2007 and early 2008. HP China will replace the batteries for free.

The general details of the Chinese battery recall align well with the battery recall in the United States, but HP has not commented on whether the two recalls are connected.

The incidents are just the latest in a long history of notebook computer battery recalls that date back as long as portable computers have been using batteries. Although untold millions of notebook batteries have been sold and have performed as expected without incident, millions have also been recalled over the industry’s history, perhaps most notably more than 10 million batteries manufactured by Sony for a number of computer makers that were recalled in 2005.