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Sony Announces Global Battery Recall
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:42 AM
from the fewer-explosions-has-to-be-a-good-thing dept.
from the fewer-explosions-has-to-be-a-good-thing dept.
snafu109 writes "Since the laptop battery recalls initiated by Dell, Apple, IBM/Lenovo, Toshiba & Fujitsu, some may have wondered whether the entire lot should be recalled. Well, over at MarketWatch, a new article reports just that. 'Sony said Thursday it will initiate a global replacement program for certain battery packs that use its lithium-ion cells in notebook computers in order to address concerns related to recent over-heating incidents.' In related news, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has released some tips on how to lower the risk of your laptop batteries exploding, no matter who the manufacturer."
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IBM and Lenovo Recall Sony Batteries 111 comments
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More Sony Batteries Recalled 42 comments
Scott Hagerman passes along news of yet another recall of Sony laptop batteries. The batteries in question, manufactured in the same timeframe as those involved in the massive 2006 recall, are in laptops sold by HP, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, and Acer. Neither Apple nor Sony itself used these batteries in their laptops. This time 100,000 batteries are involved — 65,000 of them sold outside of the US — vs. the 10 million recalled in 2006. The Consumer Product Safety Commission fielded 19 reports of batteries overheating and/or catching fire.
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At least they are recyclable (Score:3, Insightful)
-Rick
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I wonder how much energy will be spent per battery, including roundtrip airfreight fuel and your reading this message that I write, before the battery's current lifecycle is over.
Of course those hidden costs aren't part of our decisions when we buy these devices to stay r
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Aluminum frame.. no brainer.. (scrap dealers will pay you $~0.50lb)..
Clear Glass. Another no brainer..
Resin backing. (Add some solvent and make it into another PV panel.)
Remaining Silicon and Copper.. Easily recycled.
As for True Costs.. tack in the costs of GW..
and all the Fossil fuel solutions fly right out the window.
Just for grins..
What percentage of earth orbiting satellites are powered by anything but PV?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I hope you're not seriously implying that the relative performance and cost characteristics of PV in orbit, where the cost per kg of payload at launch is astronomical (har!), the environment they operate in varies in temperature by hundreds of degrees, available sunlight is completely unfiltered by atmosphere, and there is zero chance of replacing spent fuel (see point 1)somehow translates meaningfully to their performance character
Re: (Score:2)
I do believe the chance is decidly non-zero.
Very very small, maybe, but still greater than zero none the less.
-nB
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
A more rhetorical question is the energy budget of the PV
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
"What percentage of earth orbiting satellites are powered by anything but PV?"
When you don't have to worry about an atmosphere, or mass production, and you can't really refuel the thing, your solution set changes. PV is a really good alternative for satellites. It's less ide
Re: (Score:2)
Slightly less than there used to be [wikipedia.org].
to be fair... (Score:2)
Like you samples, it takes a lot of energy/emissions to create a solar array. That 'wasted' energy reduces the total life cycle energy performance of solar arrays. But is the final performance better or worse than a coal burning alternative? And depending on what life cycle? (Energy, longevity, emissions, cost, prof fit, etc...)
It takes a lot of energy to cr
quote (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:quote (Score:4, Informative)
If the battery bursts into flames, you definitely don't want it on your lap.
Parent
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i use my HP laptop on my lap all the time, but i make sure that the vent is hanging off the side of my leg, keeping the warmest part of it off of me and allowing air to flow.
I sense a conspiracy! (Score:5, Funny)
Today: Rootkits, and DRM
Tomorrow: Holding the world hostage with boiling lithium..
eeek...
Re:I sense a conspiracy! (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
As part of their environmental initiative, Sony has also announced that they secured a source of recycled power supplies and detonation units for this new program.
why (Score:3, Interesting)
Sony just keeps digging a bigger hole each way you look... I have to wonder if the exec's arn't stipping the company apart from the inside
Re:why (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Further Details... (Score:5, Funny)
More tips to prevent explosion! (Score:5, Funny)
OK, I'll say it (Score:4, Insightful)
Rootkit
Laptop batteries
BluRay
RIAA/MPAA support
Sony is looking more and more like a company that is poorly led and one that maybe can't be trusted. These are all (so far) huge public relation disasters. I think they need to rethink their strategy, in the meantime, I will be politely avoiding their products.
You left out a few: (Score:2)
Universal Media Disk
PSP "White is Coming" ad campaign
Lack of PSP title support
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Re: (Score:2)
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Confused? Worried? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
From what I've read, it appears that Sony puts more battery charging safeguards into to their branded notebooks than Dell, Apple, etc do?
Ron
Re: (Score:2)
The worst way for this to happen to Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
Sony should have seen this coming and bit the bullet at that point. This has turned into a PR disaster. Most people don't understand the concept of a root kit, but they do understand "can't bring laptop on a plane, because it might bring the plane down" (Virgin Atlantic did ban several brands of laptops because of this issue) or "laptop bursts into flame, everybody blames Sony". It's a very simple concept and everybody can understand it. When technology doesn't work properly or worse becomes a hazard, people become angry and scared. And the last thing a company wants is to have its name associated with fear and pain.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Check e-bay in a few months (Score:2)
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And when Sony is left with hundreds of thousand of bad batteries on their hands, don't you think someone somewhere will figure out how to grab a couple of them and sell them? I doubt all those batteries will be destroyed/recycled within months or even years.
Re: (Score:2)
low incidence (Score:5, Insightful)
So, taking a low-ball figure of 20 million for total notebooks in use from 1/01 thorugh 8/06, that's still just over 2 incidents per million notebooks... I wonder how many incidents there would be per million notebook-use-hours.
To contrast, the rail system in the US was very pround when, in 1993, they were able to reduce reportable safety incidents below 3.0 per million train miles.
What I'm trying to say is that people are getting very worked up over a not-very-big deal (not that the goal shouldn't be 0 incidents per million hours) -- and considering the minor harm that such fires are likely to cause, is it worth the economic and financial impact of these recalls?
Let's turn the question around... (Score:2)
Sony Batteries (Score:3, Funny)
Sony Batteries
-only $14.95-
* Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to Sony Batteries.
* Caution: Sony Batteries may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds.
* Sony Batteries Contains a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at.
* Do not use Sony Batteries on concrete.
Discontinue use of Sony Batteries if any of the following occurs:
* Itching
* Vertigo
* Dizziness
* Tingling in extremities
* Loss of balance or coordination
* Slurred speech
* Temporary blindness
* Profuse sweating
* Heart palpitations
If Sony Batteries begin to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.
Sony Batteries may stick to certain types of skin.
When not in use, Sony Batteries should be returned to its special container and kept under refrigeration...
Failure to do so relieves the makers of Sony Batteries, Sony Corporation, of any and all liability.
Ingredients of Sony Batteries include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space.
Sony Batteries have been shipped to our troops in Afghanistan and is also being dropped by our warplanes on Iraq.
Do not taunt Sony Batteries.
Sony Batteries come with a lifetime guarantee.
Sony Batteries
ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES!
New batteries better? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Smoking bag in an airport! (Score:3, Insightful)
Good thing there wasn't a trigger happy air marshall there! If only he had some water to put out the... oh, wait. If I were this guy I'd be thankful to be alive.
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Damn Mr. Phelps! At least read your messages in private!
Why do the explode? (Score:3, Interesting)
And if you are wondering how overcharging can create an explosion. Another scientific summary would be: If you put more energy into an environment which cannot handle it. It becomes unstable.
If you are wondering why an environment becomes unstable when too much energy is involved: It comes down to atomic science.
Wondering why it comes down to atomic science? You might want to think about going back to school, we need more scientific minds like you.
PS: slashdot already handles this (Score:2)
$string =~ s/\r\n/####/isg;
$string =~s/\n/####/isg; #Where #### is the HTML br tag. Am I missing something?
Hey pizpot, use the "Plain Old Text" input type and it will already do this for you. It also allows HTML tags in the "Plain Old Text" posting format.
(Posted with Plain Old Text)
Sony Xplod (Score:3, Funny)
Okay... Sony has recalled a bunch of batteries... (Score:2)
Where? (Score:2)
Thanks Slashdot (Score:2)
Check your battery manufacturer in Linux (Score:4, Informative)
cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0
Everyone blames Sony (Score:2, Insightful)
If I had been Sony, I would have asked the manufacturers to recall batteries all at the same time. Instead, they are getting bad press four times in a row as all the reputable manufacturers recall their batteries. What a PR disaster!
I
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Of course, there's a big difference between mass producing millions of a thing as cheaply as possible using laborers working for a dollar a day, and building a huge one-of-a-kind project with a huge budget and twenty year time frame using hundreds of physicists and engineers.