Toshiba laptop battery recall affects 9,000 units in Canada

Toshiba Corp. has issued a worldwide recall of 340,000 laptop computer batteries manufactured by Sony Corp., including 9,000 sold in Canada, because of problems associated with recharging the cells.

The recall, announced Tuesday, is the third recall of Sony-made batteries since August.

"Around 9,000 units are potentially affected in Canada," Toshiba Canada spokeswoman Sherry Lyons told CBC in an e-mail message.

The batteries pose no safety risk and were manufactured between March and May of this year, Toshiba says in a notice on its Canadian website. The power cells were shipped with computers in the Satellite, Satellite Pro and Tecra lines.

"The affected battery packs simply stop working, i.e. stop accepting a charge, and they no longer supply power to the computer. They do not overheat, or pose any safety related issue or concern," the notice says. "This issue has no relation with the problem reported by Dell Inc. and Apple Computer, Inc., in their recalls of battery packs."

Affected models include Toshiba's Satellite A100, M70 and M100; Satellite Pro A100 and M70; and Tecra A6 and A7.

Spokespeople for Toshiba were unable to immediately say how many of the affected units are in Canada.

String of problems

The recall is another in a string of embarrassing problems related to lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Sony.

On Monday Virgin Atlantic banned the use of battery-powered Apple or Dell laptop computers on international flights because there have been recalls related to concerns that they could overheat and catch fire. The laptops may only be used if they are running on in-seat power.

Virgin, Qantas and Korean Air halted the use of the battery-powered laptops after Dell and Apple issued recalls last month.

In August Dell recalled 4.1 million laptop batteries and days later Apple recalled 1.8 million.

Dell said in a statement that the recall would affect approximately 95,000 battery packs sold to customers in Canada.

Battery packs contain cells of rolled up metal strips. Sony said that during production, the crimping of the rolls left tiny shards of metal loose in the cells that were supplied to Dell and Apple. Sometimes those shards can cause batteries to short-circuit.