Hewlett Packard seem to be jinxed in May. They recalled 70,000 laptop batteries in May 2009, 54,000 in May 2010 and another 162,000 are apparently potentially dangerous.
According to sources, the batteries may cause skin burns due to overheating and even potentially catch fire in extreme circumstances. The US Product Safety Commission are forcing a recall.
Users are told to immediately stop using the machines, and to remove the batteries, having received 40 reports of dangerous incidents. The batteries were made in China and sold with HP and Compaq machines.
The CPSC alert said “Consumers should immediately remove the batteries from their notebook computer and contact HP to determine if their battery is included in this recall. Consumers who had previously checked their batteries and were informed they were not included in previous announcements are urged to check again. Consumers with recalled batteries will receive a free replacement battery. After removing the recalled battery from their notebook computer, consumers may use the AC adapter to power the computer until a replacement battery arrives.”
Kitguru says: If you have one of the affected machines, please remove the battery immediately.