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.

How do you calibrate the battery for your sony laptop

Once the battery for sony laptop builds a memory, there is very little you can do to repair it. New, the batteries hold almost two hours of use. However, the battery to my sony computer will only hold about 40 minutes of a charge.

The drawback to the sony laptop (and a lot of the older laptops and a good number of the new laptops) is that there is not an effective system of power management. This is seen more often with cell phones, where there is a "smart chip" that manages the charging of the laptop batteries without creating a "memory" to the sony laptop battery.

How to keep a laptop battery efficient?

It is said that letting a laptop plugged to the AC with the laptop battery in can damage the battery. Is it really better for the long term battery-life to keep on charging and emptying it?
i search some data.and get the best answer as follow,i hope it can help anyboday who has the same question.

While not optimum… I don’t think it’s a huge problem given your convenience.Some say it may not last as long.

Exercise the laptop Battery. Do not leave a charged battery dormant for long periods of time. Once charged, you should at least use the notebook battery at least once every two to three weeks. Also, do not let a Li-On battery completely discharge. (Discharing is only for older batteries with memory effects)

finally,My husband uses 3 year old hp pavilion dv1000 battery and we've left it plugged in most of the time. Still works great and the battery holds a charge.