Acer recalls 27,000 notebook PC batteries

Sony-made cells could overheat and cause a fire

By Dan Nystedt, Taipei | Thursday, 26 April 2007
Just six months after saying Acer laptop PC users would not need to replace any batteries amid a massive global recall, a company subsidiary announced a recall for 27,000 batteries in the US.

Acer America said on Wednesday that the rechargeable lithium ion batteries contain cells made by Sony Energy Devices that could overheat and potentially cause a fire. The recall is being made in cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The announcement follows a number of high profile laptop PC battery recalls related to Sony-made cells. The recalls started with Dell last August, and continued on to nearly every major PC vendor in the world, including Lenovo and Sony itself. Over 9.6 million laptop PC batteries have been recalled so far.

No users have reported problems with overheating batteries in Acer laptops, the company says. It provided a list of TravelMate and Aspire brand notebook PCs sold in the US between May 2004 through November 2006 that contain faulty batteries.

A website set up for the battery recall lists affected laptop models and offers users instructions about how to get a replacement.

Customers should stop using the recalled batteries immediately, Acer says, and use their AC adapter and power cord until a replacement battery arrives.