TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: LAPTOP ON FIRE?

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Is your laptop on fire, or are you just happy to see me? Audience: Most laptop owners

One of the better-kept secrets in the laptop computer world is that your laptop computer wasn't manufactured by the company you think it was. For example, your Apple, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, IBM, Sharp, or Sony laptop was probably assembled by the Taiwanese laptop company Quanta Computers. Your laptop's LCD screen? That was probably made by LG Philips, Samsung, AU Optronics, or Chi Mei. And your laptop's battery? That was probably manufactured by Sanyo, Matsushita, or the Sony Energy Devices Corporation.

Your laptop's battery is what we need to talk about today. You see, approximately 10 million lithium ion laptop batteries manufactured by Sony have the potential of overheating, possibly resulting in a fire. And these potentially defective batteries can be found not only in certain Sony laptops but also in certain laptop models sold by Apple, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hitachi, IBM/Lenovo, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba.

How does this affect you? Well, according to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission [CPSC], there have been

at least 47 incidents involving smoke or fire associated with notebook computers, from January 2001 through August 2006.

[Source: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06271.html ]

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer my laptop computer not to spontaneously combust, especially when the computer is IN MY LAP!

How can you tell if your laptop's battery is vulnerable? The following is a list of the laptop computer resellers that are voluntarily recalling certain Sony-made laptop batteries vulnerable to overheating. Check the list below for a link to your laptop reseller's battery recall page. There you'll find instructions on how to identify your battery and learn if it is subject to a recall. I've also included links to most of the reseller's CPSC battery recall announcements.

Apple https://depot.info.apple.com/batteryexchange/index.html
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06245.html

Dell http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06231.html

Fujitsu http://www.computers.us.fujitsu.com/battery
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07011.html

Gateway http://www.gateway.com/battery/
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07011.html

Hitachi http://tinyurl.com/vjnnx
Note: Hitachi has recalled 16,000 batteries installed in Flora 210W and Se210 laptops sold in Japan.

IBM/Lenovo http://www.lenovo.com/batteryprogram
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06270.html

Sharp http://tinyurl.com/wqrlm
Note: Sharp has recalled 28,000 batteries sold in Japan.

Sony http://esupport.sony.com/battery
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07011.html

Toshiba http://www.bxinfo.toshiba.com/
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07011.html

Hewlett Packard and Acer use Sony batteries in their laptops, but as of Tuesday, October 24, 2006, neither company has issued a recall. Sony has also announced that they will initiate a "global replacement program for notebook computer battery packs" [see http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200609/06-090E/index.html ] but no further details have been provided.

Stay tuned to our little bus of internet happiness for updates. Have a safe and happy week, and we'll talk again soon.