14 DAY TRIAL // The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in collaboration with Palo Alto, California-based HP, has recently issued a fire hazard warning in regard to about 70,000 lithium-ion batteries used to power some of the latter's portable computer systems. According to the issued warning, users who are currently using one of the listed laptops should immediately contact their manufacturer and try to determine if their PC runs the risk of posing a fire and burn hazard.
According to the warning, there are about two known reports of batteries that have overheated and ruptured, consequently resulting in flames or fire that have caused minor property damage. Although no injuries have been recorded, the commission clearly instructs consumers to discontinue using the recalled laptops and contact HP for a solution to the possible issue. With the announcement, the commission also issued a table detailing the models that are suspected of having been equipped with the reported batteries.
These HP and Compaq laptops have been sold from August 2007 through March 2008 for prices between US$500 and US$3000. The reported models include the Pavillion dv2000, dv2500, dv2700, dv6000, dv6500, dv6700, dv9000, dv9500, dv9700, the Compay Presario A900, C700, F700, V3000, V3500, V3700, V6000, V6500, V6700, the HP G6000, G7000 and the HP Compaq 6720s. The batteries have been manufactured by an undisclosed company in China and should be removed immediately from the notebook. The CPSC also informs users to contact HP to determine if they are among those eligible for a free battery replacement.
This isn't the first time the CPSC issued an warning report regarding laptop batteries. Back in October 2008, the US commission did the same with regard to Sony-branded lithium-ion batteries that were used to power a series of laptops from major system vendors including HP, Dell and Toshiba. It now appears that HP users will once again have to make sure that their laptop isn't among the problematic units.