Fujitsu Reports Laptop Battery Problems

Fujitsu says one of its customers, using a notebook powered by a Sony battery, got a spark of excitement last week reminiscent of recent battery problems.

The user said sparks came from the battery pack of a Fujitsu notebook. The user disconnected the laptop from the electric supply and detached the battery pack, said Toshiaki Koike, a Fujitsu spokesperson in Tokyo, reports our colleaue Martyn Williams of the IDG News Service.

The user was not injured during the incident, according to Fujitsu. the company has been offering replacement batteries to users of certain laptop models, as part of Sony’s global battery replacement program. The laptop in the incident was a model covered by the program, Koike said.

Fujitsu’s offer stops short of a recall because the vendor does not believe a danger exists from using the batteries, which were produced during the same time as batteries recalled by other laptop makers including Dell and Apple. Those recalls began after incidents in which the batteries caught fire. Sony blames a combination of problems that occurred during manufacturing, as well as the system configuration of the laptops.

The battery recalls and replacements are expected to cover 9.6 million batteries and cost Sony up to $436 million.



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