Toshiba has issued its second recall in a month of Sony laptop batteries that could overheat and burst into flames.

The latest recall, announced Thursday by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, affects about 1,400 notebooks. The models include the Toshiba Satellite A100 and A105, and the Toshiba Tecra A7, which sell for as little as $680.

The recall stemmed from three reports outside of the United States of laptop batteries overheating. No injuries were reported, but the CPSC is advising laptop computer owners to run the systems on AC power and send the batteries back to Toshiba for replacements at no charge.

Toshiba in July recalled 10,000 batteries in Toshiba Satellite and Toshiba Tecra laptops. The company reported in June that a Sony laptop battery was responsible for at least two notebooks bursting into flames. The CPSC has listed 16 reports of Sony lithium-ion notebook batteries overheating.

Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Gateway, and Acer America also have issued recalls of the faulty rechargeable batteries. The global effort started last year when power sources used in notebooks from several manufacturers began showing defects and overheating. Sony last year recalled 9.6 million batteries, making it the largest recall ever in the computer industry.

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Toshiba said Thursday it will recall lithium-ion notebook battery packs made by Sony Corp.

Up to 5,100 battery packs are defective, but the recall will include 10,000 laptop batteries, as that is the size of the manufacturing lot involved, spokesmen from the companies said.

The recall is unrelated to the much bigger recall of Sony-made li-ion batteries last year.

A Toshiba spokesman said the recall would affect 10 different notebook models sold worldwide. He said the company knew of three separate incidents where the laptop battery packs had overheated and damaged notebooks, and all three came from the lot in question.

A Sony spokesman said all of the batteries involved had come from the same lot the company made in December 2005, and so the companies had decided to recall all batteries from that lot.

He said Sony was still investigating the cause of the problem, but that it was limited to that specific lot.

Both companies expect the financial impact from the recall to be minimal

News source: MarketWatch.com

Gateway today recalled 14,000 batteries used in its notebook PCs after four customers reported that their computers had overheated, a similar condition to the massive laptop battery recall that swept the industry in 2006.

Dell, Apple, Lenovo Group, and other vendors recalled more than 8 million batteries made by Sony when customers began complaining that the rechargeable lithium-ion cells could overheat and catch fire after being dropped. Gateway recalled 35,000 notebook batteries in that episode, beginning in October 2006.

However, the new recall affects battery cells made by Samsung Electronics and assembled into laptop battery packs by Simplo Technology, of Taiwan, Gateway spokeswoman Lisa Emard said today.

Gateway, the third-largest PC vendor in the U.S., expects both vendors to help cover the cost of the action.

“We’re working with our suppliers to cover the cost of replacement battery packs and other direct costs. We expect our costs to be limited to incidental expenses associated with administering the exchange program,”

Emard said.

Simplo and Samsung did not return calls for comment.

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