Lenovo probes Sony battery-run laptop fire

Asia's largest PC manufacturer, Lenovo Group Ltd. said on Monday that it is looking into a fire incident that took place on a Lenovo laptop PC fitted with a Sony Corp. battery.

A Lenovo ThinkPad T43 notebook equipped with Sony- made battery, began smoking and later caught fire in Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 16.

Lenovo spokesman Ray Gorman informed that fortunately no one was injured in the incident. The cause behind the incidence is still ambiguous and the company engineers are examining the computer, Gorman said.

The incident followed the three separate recalls made by the three major laptop manufacturers, Dell, Apple and Toshiba. The three companies recalled nearly 6.24 million lithium-ion batteries produced by Sony within five weeks due to defects that are commonly believed to cause overheating that eventually catch fire.

Incidentally, the Lenovo notebook that caught fire was using the same type of Sony battery that was a target of Dell and Apple Computer recalls, the Lenovo spokesman informed.

Dell Inc., the world's largest personal-computer maker, last month announced a recall of 4.1 million lithium-ion notebook batteries, which was the biggest U.S. recall of a consumer-electronics device and raised the concerns about safety of laptop batteries. Soon after, Apple Computer Inc. recalled 1.8 million notebook batteries. The cells inside the batteries retailed by computer makers were made by a subsidiary of Sony.

Sony Energy Devices, a unit of Japan-based Sony Corp., produces the defective batteries.

Adding more to Sony battery woes, after Dell and Apple the latest in the string was Toshiba Corp., which said last week that it would recall 340,000 laptop computer batteries globally made by Sony Corp.

On the other hand, concerned with the regular recalls made within one and half month duration, Sony spokesman said the company is working together with Lenovo in probing the cause of the incident.

However, the spokesman added that Sony has not determined that the laptop in question was loaded with a Sony battery.

Meanwhile, Sony Philippines Inc., the nation’s leading provider of consumer electronic products, said recalls made by giant laptop producers due to defective batteries might affect its local sales.

“Our head office [in Japan] is the one who handles these cases but as a whole, this may effect our business locally,” said Hiroaki Kobayashi, Sony Philippines president and CEO.

Sony shares were down 1.1 percent at 4,720 yen yesterday in afternoon trade, approximately in line with the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index.