Some Toshiba laptop batteries might melt in your lap

Apr 3, 2016 13:15 GMT  ·  By

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a public recall announcement on behalf of Toshiba, which warns around 91,000 users in the US, an additional 10,000 users in Canada about an issue with their Toshiba laptop's battery.

According to the recall's details, the issue affects the lithium-ion batteries installed in Portege, Satellite, and Tecra laptop models. Panasonic is the manufacturer of the laptops' battery model.

All laptops sold in the US and Canada between June 2011 through January 2016, manufactured in China and Japan are affected. The laptops were sold mainly through Office Depot, Staples, Toshibadirect.com, but also from other electronic stores or online websites.

Affected batteries may overheat and melt

Toshiba says that the laptop batteries may overheat and even melt, with the potential to hurt their owners. Four such cases have been reported so far.

Company representatives say that 39 laptop models may be affected. The company has published a page where it provides instructions on how to discover if a laptop is affected by this issue or not.

Toshiba provides an automated tool that obtains the laptop's serial and part number, along with its battery's serial and part number, and tells the user if his laptop is included in the recall. Manual verification steps are also provided, but these involve taking the laptop apart.

Affected users should use their laptop using an AC adaptor only

The company says that all battery units listed in the recall have the battery part numbers that begin with G71C (G71C*******). The issue may affect new laptops still under warranty, but also users that have had their battery replaced under or after their warranty expired.

Some users that are not in Toshiba's list of possibly affected laptop models may still be affected if they replaced their original battery with one from this batch.

The company says that the simplest way to avoid any issues with the battery is to use the laptop with its AC charger plugged in all the time. The issue only appears only when the laptop is functioning on pure battery power alone.

Users that are affected by this recall will receive a new battery for free. A normal replacement battery of this type costs between $70 and $130.