PowerBook G4 Battery Recall

Beelsebob writes "Apple have put out a recall on a certain group of PowerBook G4 batteries. If you have a PowerBook G4 (Aluminum) 15" and your battery's model number is A1045, and its serial number starts HQ404, HQ405, HQ406, HQ407, or HQ408, then you could be at risk of it overheating."

Look at the date of manufacture....

[detritus`]

At least they manufactured these batteries using the improved Li-ion technology, if it was the older style it wouldnt just overheat, it'd most likely start a runaway reaction that would end in quite toasted laptops. I think it was 150 Degrees F or so that this would start at, i know i heard of several cell phones left in hot cars that did this, and at least 1 nokia that burnt up while charging.

Re:Year of the Portable my butt

[badasscat]

For a company that puts so much emphasis on portable devices, Apple certainly has a lot of problems with batteries.

And you didn't even link the most dramatic case, that of actual exploding batteries [wired.com]. And no, this isn't some Nokia-like third party battery situation, these were the real Apple-supplied batteries (though that article does go out of the way to point out they were "Sony-made").

Apple's got some real quality control issues, despite their reputation. They seem to have at least one or two recalls per year for various reasons ranging from defective batteries to defective power supplies to defective screens, as well as other problems that are common complaints but that they do nothing about (such as the iPod battery service life issue). The recall I noted above was actually a safety issue, and I would guess the overheating batteries in the G4 PB's might be a safety issue as well.

I'd still buy an Apple for other reasons, but quality control is not one of them, public perception notwithstanding. They're certainly no better than any other manufacturer and may actually be somewhat worse (IBM, for example, has had fewer recalls over the same period).

that was a preproduction machine

[SuperBanana]

It has happened before.

Jesus, everyone blows that out of proportion, like 5300's were exploding left and right. It happened in an Apple test lab, with a PREPRODUCTION model, with a DEFECTIVE BATTERY supplied by the battery manufacturer. I have no idea where MacNN got that it was two batteries.

Not a single customer was affected by the problem- Apple took the precautionary measure of switching to NiMH after the problem, and most people never even saw a Lithium Ion battery in their 5300.

So, I ask, how could they possibly have handled the problem any better, mmm? Comparing it to the iPod battery bit, which was not handled as well- is absurd.

Re:Year of the Portable my butt

[the MaD HuNGaRIaN]

And Dell never has battery problems [google.com]

Re:that was a preproduction machine

[tgibbs]

You're probably right. I'm an Apple user myself and am not looking to bash Apple or something. But for a computer company that compares itself to BMW it is not acceptable that something like that should be possible at all. If you buy a BMW you don't want a model that has been known to be losing wheels in preproduction runs on the test circuit.

Yeah, you won't find a respectable company like BMW issuing recalls due to dangerous product defects [bbc.co.uk]

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mannnnnn

[MyDixieWrecked]

Too bad this recall doesn't include my powerbook's battery... one of the early jaguar updates broke my battery somehow... I've read of other users experiencing the same thing. After the update, the battery's status isn't acurate by any stretch of the imagination. The thing stays at 99% and when it gets close to dying, it just turns off. No warning. Nothing.

It's not a software issue. I've reformatted several times. And it's not a hardware issue, because when I put my battery into my mom's powerbook, the same thing happens on hers. And when I put her battery in mine, it works as expected. blah. sucks.

Re:Mmmm

[flamingnight]

When only a picture will do, here's one of an affected battery [nilzero.com]. Here's another of the desk [nilzero.com].
Having "only" four known incidents doesn't matter when you're one of the four.