HP Recalls Laptop Batteries
HP to date has received eight reports of battery packs overheating, melting, or charring, including three reports of property damage totaling $4,500 with one report of a minor injury involving a first degree burn to the hand, according to CPSC.
HP of Palo Alto, Calif., has announced a worldwide voluntary safety recall and replacement program for about 50,000 notebook computer and mobile workstation lithium-ion batteries that have the potential to overheat and could pose a fire and burn hazard to customers. The company says this means it is "extremely important to check whether your battery is affected," and it has created a webpage where consumers can check to see whether their battery is affected.
Batteries affected by the recall were shipped with specific HP Probook 64x (G2 and G3), HP ProBook 65x (G2 and G3), HP x360 310 G2, HP ENVY m6, HP Pavilion x360, HP 11 notebook computers and HP ZBook (17 G3, 17 G4, and Studio G3) mobile workstations sold worldwide from December 2015 through December 2017, and they also were sold as accessories or provided as replacements through HP or an authorized HP Service Provider.
"Many of these batteries are internal to the system, which means they are not customer replaceable. HP is providing battery replacement services by an authorized technician at no cost," the company's webpage says. It says HP is also providing a BIOS update that places the battery in Battery Safety Mode so that the notebook or workstation can be safely used without the battery by connecting to an HP power adaptor, and that batteries affected by this recall should immediately be put into "Battery Safety Mode," which is only applicable to HP products affected by this recall.
"If the validation process identifies a battery as being eligible for replacement, the BIOS update should be applied and the system should be rebooted. During the reboot process, an option will be presented to enable Battery Safety Mode. Accepting Battery Safety Mode causes the battery to discharge and to cease future charging until Battery Safety Mode is disabled. HP strongly recommends accepting Battery Safety Mode so that the notebook or mobile workstation can be safely used by connecting to an HP power adaptor," the company said.
The recall was announced by HP and the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Jan. 4. It affects about 50,000 batteries plus 2,600 that were sold in Canada. To contact HP toll-free, call 888-202-4320 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central time weekdays or visit www.hp.com and click "Recalls" for more information.
HP to date has received eight reports of battery packs overheating, melting, or charring, including three reports of property damage totaling $4,500 with one report of a minor injury involving a first degree burn to the hand, according to CPSC, which said the recalled batteries were sold at Best Buy and other stores and authorized dealers nationwide and online at www.Amazon.com, www.hp.com, and other websites. The batteries were shipped in notebook computers and mobile workstations sold from December 2015 through December 2017 for between $300 and $4,000, and the batteries also were sold separately for between $50 and $90.