Vaio battery recall - TheRegister

[speculatrix]

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/10/17/sony_japan_recalls_90k_vaio_batteries/

By Tony Smith [More by this author]
17th October 2006 10:49 GMT
Find your perfect job - click here from thousands of tech vacancies

Sony has announced details of the Vaio laptop battery recall it admitted last month it was going to initiate. And Toshiba has indicated it may sue the Japanese giant in order to gain recompense for any damage it alleges may have been done to its brand by its own battery recall.

Sony's Vaio division announced on 29 September it was planning to recall batteries fitted into some of its notebook computers. At the time, it said it was pondering whether it would participate in the broader battery recall programme put in place independently by Sony's battery manufacturing operation.

[speculatrix]

Sony Japan today asked anyone who owns a VGP-BPS2B or VGP-BPS3A battery pack to return the unit to the company. Some have been sold on their own, others were bundled with a variety of Vaio notebooks. The recall only applies to certain battery-pack serial numbers, Sony said.

Sony Japan said it expects to replace around 90,000 batteries in the Asia Pacific region. Other Sony subsidiaries have yet to announce recalls of their own, but Japanese newspaper the Nihon Keizai Shimbun today put the total at 300,000 Vaio batteries worldwide.

The claim comes a day after Toshiba said it may take Sony to court to seek compensation for the lost business and damage to its brand it alleges it has sustained since it issued an 830,000-unit recall last month. ®

[tweety2b]

Hi all,

Currently it is not a recall but a voluntary replacement for custome satisfaction purposes. Current official statement is still:

VAIO management is currently assessing the position on the notebook computer battery packs and considering whether to participate in this voluntary replacement program.

I'll keep you informed of any changes.

KR

[speculatrix]

so far I've identified the following computers which take this battery:

VGN FE series

VGN T series

[tweety2b]

Hi all,

The voluntary replacement will start sequentially with China and Japan first but will be expanded to the other countries of the world as soon as the program has been set up and ready to start.

More communication to follow soon...

[seb21__]

Die Rückrufaktion wird zuerst in China und Japan gestartet. Danach auch in den übrigen Ländern der Welt, sobald alle Vorbereitungen getroffen wurden.

[kee-lo_]

Wonder if they'll be replacing many from the older ranges?

[seb21__]

Wonder if they'll be replacing many from the older ranges?

I think not. I would say the problem itslef is not the device (the battery here), it's the manufacturing. And that has to me cheap as possible at your need of quality.

[speculatrix]

I've not read any particularly insiteful reports about what it is that causes the batteries to go bang; there's an implication that the charge circuitry in the laptop doesn't detect some sort of problem in the battery and continues to charge it when the battery overheats and then melts, catches fire or goes bang

this would suggest to me that vaio batteries could fail this way, but that Sony's charging circuitry is more sophisticated at detecting the problem and prevents a catastrophic failure... however, you'd still have a failed battery

I thus think that buying an extended warranty on your vaio, specifically to cover battery failure, is perhaps a very wise thing!

[commanderdot]

If it's to somebody's interest FS series also uses VGP-BPS2B.

ALSO: Does someone know which serial numbers are affected?

On the japanese site I managed to find the serial numbers affected for the VGP-BPS3A battery model, these seem to be:
1-756-545-11
1-756-545-12
1-756-545-13

But I got no news for the VGP-BPS2B.