Trick or treat everyone!

Just when you begin to think this whole exploding battery nightmare is finally over, like a bad Halloween horror film, it strikes again.

About 35,000 Sony laptop batteries sold in the US are being recalled.   They were used all across the board in notebook models from Dell to HP to Toshiba.  So far there are reports of 19 units overheating, 17 of which actually caught fire, 10 of which actually resulted in minor property damage.  More information on the affected laptop models and pictures to help identify them are in the link.  But if in the course the years these were deployed, only 19 of 35,000 have gone bad, chances are you don’t so much need to freak out as just attend to it with a modicum of alacrity.

Sony blames the “defect” (that causes their laptop batteries to explode) on changes to their manufacturing line between October ‘04 and June ‘05.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends that affected users remove their battery and contact their laptop’s manufacturer to request a replacement. Probably best to do post haste, but no need to trample anyone to get your battery to safety before it explodes.

Happy Halloween everyone!

(And yes, this is a real product warning and recall.)