Originally posted on June 1, 2011 @ 1:30 pm
The grapevine has been afire with news about Hewlett-Packard’s most recent recall of defective batteries. I say most recent as the announcement that was made last week, affecting 162,000 lithium-ion batteries, is not the first that has been made. Affected HP users will definitely not forget the worldwide recall that was done last year. There was also an earlier announcement made – a week before this latest announcement.
The problem is simple, but the results of any malfunction can be painful: the defective batteries may overheat and rupture. Obviously, if you’re using the laptop when/if this happens, you can get serious burns. Otherwise, you run the risk of setting your home/office on fire, just like what has happened to some users in 2010.
So if you have an HP laptop, how do you know if you need to get in touch with HP (and not waste their – and your – time in case you are not affected)?
Certain HP laptops that were manufactured between July 2007 and May 2008 are affected by the problem. So the first thing to do is to check when your laptop was manufactured. If it does not fall in between those dates, go on with your life. If your laptop was manufactured in that period, here is a complete list of model numbers and battery bar codes: US Consumer Product Safety Commission announcement. A quick list: HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario, HP, and HP Compaq.
Once you have determined that your laptop and battery are included in the list, do another check by visiting HP’s validation process web site. From there, you can also start the process of requesting a replacement battery, which is of course, free of charge.
I hope that you are not affected, but if you are, best get that battery replaced NOW!
Photo via Complaints Board