Lenovo launches another lithium-ion ThinkPad battery recall

By Colleen Taylor -- Electronic News, 3/2/2007

Danger from defective lithium-ion batteries has once again reared its ugly head at Lenovo Inc., which announced Thursday yet another battery recall affecting some 208,000 9-cell lithium-ion batteries.

In a statement on the company's Web site, the China-based PC maker did not disclose a specific reason for recalling the battery manufactured by Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., saying only that "there have been five incidents" that have come to the company's attention. In September, IBM Corp. and Lenovo issued a similar recall of batteries made by Sony Corp., and said that the defective lithium-ion batteries can cause overheating, posing a fire hazard to customers.

These batteries being recalled were manufactured for use with ThinkPad notebook computers that shipped worldwide between November 2005 and February 2007, following Lenovo’s purchase of the IBM's PC line in December 2004. Lenovo said it sold the batteries with new notebook computers or as optional or replacement batteries on the ThinkPad R60 and R60e Series, ThinkPad T60 and T60p Series, and ThinkPad Z60m, Z61e, Z61m, and Z61p Series models.

The affected models may have shipped with either 6-cell or 9-cell batteries; however, only the 9-cell batteries with the part number FRU P/N 92P1131 are being recalled.

Reps at Sanyo could not be reached for comment on the recall.

For its part, Sony has indeed paid dearly for its lithium-ion manufacturing mishaps, which triggered large-scale battery recalls last year at Dell Inc., Apple Inc., and others. In October, Sony downgraded its financial forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007, forecasting operating profits of $422 million, down 62 percent from its July 2006 forecast. The company's net income outlook was also lowered, down 38 percent from its July forecast to $67 billion.