HP said it has decided it is not necessary for the company to join the global battery replacement program that Sony has announced to address safety issues. This was announced after reviewing, along with Sony, battery cells used in HP notebooks.

"Based on this review, the companies are confident that because of HP's PC system configuration, HP notebooks using Sony battery cells are not prone to overheating issues that have recently been observed", the two companies said in a joint statement. HP said, to date, it has not received reports of overheating in any HP notebook using Sony battery cells included in the global replacement program announced by Sony a few days ago.

"After discussing the issues with Sony, we believe that we have the proper charging and circuit protections in place to prevent an overheating episode. While no battery is immune to failure or overheating, battery solutions provided by HP are unique and are designed with a number of HP engineered safety features that are in addition to what is typical in the industry", said Ted Clark, senior vice president and general manager of HP's notebook business unit.

Sony announced a global replacement program for potentially hazardous batteries after major manufacturers of laptop computers equipped with Sony batteries announced a series of massive recalls.