The majority of the laptops with the dangerous batteries were from HP, but there were also Toshiba and Dell computers included in the recall. The batteries were manufactured by Sony.

For a list of computers, click here.

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As MSNBC puts it, "It kind of makes us pine for that irritating, but light-hearted, Energizer bunny." Plus, you can use the bunny to point out where the bad man touched you.

"Trust Duracell to Scare the *$#%! Out of You" [MSNBC]

An anonymous reader sent the photo in after they ordered a shipment of 50 CMOS batteries from Dell in an attempt to save time and money by asking for "fifty spare batteries instead of having them delivered individually." This is what they got, a big box with 50 smaller boxes inside.

Packing Done Right [Daily WTF] (Thanks, Everyone!)

My mother in law, recently went to Target to get a battery installed for her watch. The watch was a common Timex model and the associate told her that she would have to buy the battery first. So she purchased that battery, and the associate attempted to install it in the watch. The battery did not fit the watch, so the associate said "sorry, we don't have the right battery" and then refused to take the battery back and refund her money. She was told they don't take back opened battery packages.

Was she taken advantage of as she is 80 years old, or is this store policy? This occurred at the Target Superstore in Miramar, Florida two weeks ago.

We asked David if he tried following up with Target on his mother-in-law's behalf.

Yes, I called and spoke to store an asst mgr, who stated that store policy is no returns on opened/used batteries. I said she never left the store, had remained at the counter, and it was your person that opened the package to remove the battery to install in her watch. I said I DONT FIND THIS ACCEPTABLE....................is this the way you treat the elderly who came to your store for assistance, and then has to buy something she cant use !!!!

After pushing the issue, she said its "its only a small amount, I probably would have taken the battery back if I was aware of this" and, "come back to the store and we will discuss this further"

So, it will cost me more in gas $$$ than the battery is worth to drive back to that store and meet with her to get a refund.

From this, I must assume it is Target policy to screw the watch battery customer...........

I know its a small $$$ amount, but for the elderly, on social security, every penny matters.

Little things like watch batteries may not cost much stores much, but blind adherence to obstinately obtuse policies can cost stores customers. The Assistant Manager at least had the common sense to realize that this is a problem with an easy solution.

Of course, the easiest solution is to treat Target as a low-end big box store, and not a repair shop. Our local jeweler resurrects dead watches for $5, which may be a bit steep compared to Target, but he's never cited 'store policy,' and he always gets our watches ticking again.

(Photo: Getty)

I ordered some batteries on sale from Circuit City, recently. When they arrived, the package made insane amounts of noise. I opened it up and found that the packages were basically destroyed and dozens and dozens of batteries were loose. For some reason, there's something really disquieting about having a box full of loose batteries come in the mail - maybe it's the low-toned clacking sound they make?

Cleaveland.com reports:

The batteries came from Avestor, a Canadian company that went bankrupt in October 2006. AT&T stopped installing the batteries in early 2007, after the first incident, Coe said. AT&T also hired a consultant to investigate their safety, but was told the batteries posed no greater risk than alternative batteries from other suppliers.

Here's what they look like before they explode:

Your World Delivered . . . On Fire [Save Access]
AT&T Begins Massive Battery Replacement [Light Reading] (Thanks to Danger Mouse & David!)

But cadmium batteries can be hazardous to make. In southern China, Wang Fengping worked for years in plants that produced cadmium batteries for the likes of Mattel Inc., Toys "R" Us Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Like hundreds of her colleagues, Ms. Wang regularly inhaled the toxic red cadmium dust that filled the air in the plant.

Now, at 45, Ms. Wang is often too weak to walk. Her kidneys have failed, and her doctors have identified cadmium poisoning as the likely culprit. About 400 other workers at her former employer, Hong Kong-based GP Batteries International Ltd., have been found to harbor unsafe levels of cadmium, a toxic metal like mercury and lead that can cause kidney failure, lung cancer and bone disease.

Some toy-makers, like Hasbro, have eschewed the use of cadmium in their products because of their toil on the environment and the health of the workers who manufacture the batteries. Mattel, however, still uses cadmium batteries, claiming that they have "performance advantages." Walmart says it doesn't buy or use cadmium batteries produced by the manufacturer that employed Ms. Wang, but declined to comment further.

Toxic Factories Take Toll On China's Labor Force [Wall Street Journal] (Thanks, Aaron!)
Ms. Wang's Blog [Yahoo!]

New Battery Rules [DOT]

Well, that's not good.

From the AP:

Passengers can still check baggage with lithium batteries if they are installed in electronic devices, such as cameras, cell phones and laptop computers. If packed in plastic bags, batteries may be in carryon baggage. The limit is two batteries per passenger.

Baggage Ban on Batteries Begins [AP]

• Do not set your laptop on a bed, couch, pillow, or in some cases your lap. This will heat up the laptop due to poor ventilation and destroy the battery.
• Kill it once a month. Once a month allow the battery to go through a complete charge cycle. If you are using a laptop or cell phone, just pay attention to the warning message that tells you to plug it in and you should be fine.
• Do not expose to extreme heat, this will drastically shorten their life spans. One day in a hot car (90 degrees plus) and you will not be able to hold more than a 10 minute charge
• Do not expose to extreme cold (below 40 degrees can start to harm battery life). If you do, allow the battery to warm up to room temperature before using it.
• Use your laptop (phone, iPod, etc) at least once a month. If you let the laptop sit in a drawer too long without using it, you will damage the battery and affect its ability to hold a charge.

With a little caution and best practices, you can make your batteries last longer and save money. In some cases, replacement laptop batteries can cost as much as $500 to replace...

(Photo: Brymo)

If that the video was from a site called "Gagfilms.com," and being featured on their home page next to clips titled, "Video Proof That Ghosts Really Exist" and "The Girl With 2 Pussies," wasn't enough of a tipoff, the images sent in by reader Roberta who tested it out should do it for you. Full deconstruction sequence, inside...

Note dubious context:

Original video:

Just like your middle-school librarian told you, critical thinking and source evaluation are valuable life-long skills.

After the husky firemen put it out, he called Apple, spent about an hour giving them an incident report, and had a new, free MacBook Pro sent to him within four days.

Like makeup sex, Jimm says he has stronger feelings about Apple than ever before:

It is like we had a fight, with knives and foreign objects and the authorities involved, but in the end, right before the credits roll, right before we look at each other covered in dirt and blood and soot and ripped clothes, we see eye to eye, human to human, me and the brand, and we shrug it off, make it even, manage a hug and keep walking together.

The Powerbook! The Powerbook! The Powerbook's on Fire! [Speak Up] (Thanks to CD!)

I recently dropped my cell phone into the last sip of coffee I had in my cup, so I know the liquid didn't penetrate to any meaningful hardware, especially considering I plucked it out immediately. Stickers, on both the inside of the battery casing (on the phone) and the battery itself, were pink/red when I opened the battery cover, however, very little moisture was present. 5 minutes later my phone turned itself off and I wasn't able to turn it back on until I plugged it into my charger at the end of the day. The phone blinked the 'Charge Complete' signal to me almost immediately, but when I unplugged it from the charger it immediately turned off again and I wasn't able to turn it on without it being plugged into the charger.

Here's where the super-sketchiness comes into play. I noticed that the pink sticker on the battery was covering an indented rectangular area, so I pulled off the sticker which revealed two small brass sensors. When I cut out and installed a plain piece of white paper to replace the color changed sticker, the phone miraculously began taking a charge again and when I unplugged it from the charger, it didn't turn off.

This seems like something that would create a lot of unnecessary consumer battery purchases and therefore sales for LG (the manufacturer of the phone and the battery) while at the same time serving to void warranties for few, if any, legitimate, consumer caused issues. These phone companies take advantage of water exposure by attributing future glitches to water damage whether water is the cause or not. It is also my opinion that they have gone so far as to implement 'water activated failure mechanisms' into phones and batteries in an effort to create replacement sales for products that aren't really damaged. As my example illustrates, the removal of the failure mechanism (the pink sticker on the battery) restored the phone and battery to its pre-coffee state . . . What a scam!

Ben,

Your reply prompted the attached pictures and an additional test. Upon insertion of the white paper rectangle, the phone recognized the battery as not being fully charged and began charging when plugged in. After a full charge was again realized I tried two more things with the same result:

1. I removed the white paper rectangle so that no barrier existed between the 'sensors' and the phone.
2. I replaced the pink/red rectangle between the sensors and the phone.

Both resulted in full functionality when I disconnected the phone from the charger. I'm sure you can hypothesize as well as I can as to the possible scenarios here. What I can tell you for sure is that I removed the phone from the charger after seeing the 'Charge Complete' message at least four times with the same result . . . immediate shut off. I then removed the pink/red rectangle, replaced it with the white paper rectangle, plugged it back in, started receiving a charge, waited 5 minutes, unplugged it, and it did not shut off.

I have ordered another battery and will check the original color of the pink/red rectangle when I receive it.

We're guessing a defective battery is the culprit, thus illustrating the perils of ignoring global product recall announcements.

More pictures in the indecipherable forum where they first appeared: Dell [Hi-PDA via The Raw Feed]

This recall applies only to the 46 million batteries manufactured by Matsushita between December 2005 and November 2006. No serious injuries have been reported.

Here's a list of the affected phones:
Nokia 1100, Nokia 1100c, Nokia 1101, Nokia 1108, Nokia 1110, Nokia 1112, Nokia 1255, Nokia 1315, Nokia 1600, Nokia 2112, Nokia 2118, Nokia 2255, Nokia 2272, Nokia 2275, Nokia 2300, Nokia 2300c, Nokia 2310, Nokia 2355, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2610, Nokia 2610b, Nokia 2626, Nokia 3100, Nokia 3105, Nokia 3120, Nokia 3125, Nokia 6030, Nokia 6085, Nokia 6086, Nokia 6108, Nokia 6175i, Nokia 6178i, Nokia 6230, Nokia 6230i, Nokia 6270, Nokia 6600, Nokia 6620, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6631, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6682, Nokia 6820, Nokia 6822, Nokia 7610, Nokia N70, Nokia N71, Nokia N72, Nokia N91, Nokia E50, Nokia E60

"Nokia" and "BL-5C" are printed on the battery. In order to see if your battery is part of the recall, you'll need to locate the "battery identification number" and type it into a form on Nokia's website. The site will then tell you if your battery has been recalled. From the NYT:

Akira Kadota, a Matsushita spokesman in Osaka, said all of the suspect batteries were made at a Matsushita factory in Zhuhai, a port city in southern China.

"There was nothing wrong with the design of the batteries. The problem was the result of a flaw in the manufacturing process," Mr. Kadota said in an interview. "That problem has since been solved and we have had no complaint from any other users of our batteries."

46 Million Nokia Cell Batteries Defective [New York Times]
Product Advisory: Nokia BL-5C battery [Nokia]

We found this out over vacation and had occasion where the cellphone was fully charged before turning it off, only to have it be flashing eep eep help me I'm dyinnnnnng when we turned it on again.

(Photo: dyobmit)

It seems Acer fell asleep during the whole Sony battery recall thing and is just recalling them now. Well, I do have a couple of affected Acer laptops, and so far the process is painful. The operators on the other end answer the phone in a language unknown to me (though one time I think I heard the operator say South Africa?) though they promptly switched to very understandable English after I spoke.

However, the line quality is so horrible that my call was dropped 3 before being able to complete a replacement request.

Even better is the 3 to 6 weeks it is to take for the replacement to arrive. Now I need to go out and buy another battery just in case the current one decides to asplode and take my naughty bits with it.

"He says the amateur mistake that they made is not having a removable battery," Dvorak said. "You run 20 minutes and you're using up half the battery power. You get 40 minutes total talk time. And the interface fouls up constantly."

Given the overheating, random shutting down, and burning power cord problems, grease buildup and other problems when the new Macbooks launched, this rumor could portend similar product defects when the iPhone releases in 2 months. Interested buyers should probably wait a few months after launch for Apple to work out all the bugs. — BEN POPKEN

[TWiT 93 via theappleblog via Gizmodo]

In both cases crew were able to extinguish the fire and safely land the aircraft, however, that might not have been the case if the batteries had been stowed in checked luggage.

Do not check loose batteries. Keep spare batteries in their original retail packaging; keep loose batteries covered with insulating tape to protect them from contact with metal objects; place each battery in its own protective case, plastic bag, or package; and pack spare batteries in carry-on baggage, rather than checked baggage. Also, passengers should use only chargers designed for the battery type and take steps to prevent crushing, puncturing or dropping batteries. Also, don't play hockey with your batteries or let babies chew on them. —MEGHANN MARCO

Department of Transportation Offers Advice on the Safe Transportation of Batteries and Battery-Powered Devices by Airline Passengers and Crew [DOT]
(Photo:Stewart)

"When we reinstalled the battery, the phone still booted up," said Vallejo fire department investigator Tweedy. "If the battery had malfunctioned or the phone had short-circuited, it wouldn't have worked anymore. And it did, so we could rule out the phone as an ignition source."

Investigators think matches, a lighter, or a cigarette started the blaze, which was so intense, it consumed them. Matters were made worse by the plastic chair the dude was sitting in.

Let's recap: polyester and nylon suit + cigarette + asleep = fire hazard. Either that, or this was a clearcut case of disco inferno. — BEN POPKEN

Cell phone didn't ignite California man [News.com via Gizmodo]

Previously: Cellphone Ignites In Pocket, Burning Man's Body And Hotel Room

Maybe the world's batteries are staging some kind of protest?

Let's get those fancy new, non-self-immolating batteries on the market, shall we? Although we can't help but wonder if the fire wasn't exacerbated by the man's "nylon and polyester clothes." — BEN POPKEN

Man's cell phone ignites in pocket [MSNBC] (Thanks to Jpac!)

Baby no more boom! — BEN POPKEN

Safer laptop batteries produced [BBC]

Vista Could Sap Notebook PC Battery Life [PC World]

340,000 American laptop owners? This is Sony bowing to you slightly from its seat.

My wife just (six weeks later) got her new battery from Apple for her Powerbook G4. The instructions on the printed materials that came with the new battery stated that the old battery had to be drained prior returning. Suggested ways to do this: play a dvd, play a CD or play the Chess game computer vs. computer.

The battery is a potential fire hazard... so the best thing to do, to make things easier for Apple, is to prolong the possibility that it will will spontaneously combust.

Awesome opossum.

CT: "We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the worries," Sony Corporate Executive Officer Yutaka Nakagawa said, bowing slightly with two other executives at a news conference at a Tokyo hotel.

The executives were seated while they bowed and did not bow deeply standing as most Japanese executives generally do in public apologies for troubles at their companies, underlining how Sony has been reluctant to admit fault in the troubles with its laptop batteries."

"...but not the exploding batteries themselves."

How deeply would they bow to the guy whose laptop exploded while sitting on pile of live ammunition?

340,000 American laptop owners? This is Sony bowing to you slightly, from a sitting position.

Rather, Dell auto-generates what appears to be an invoice, but is actually just part of their internal documentation system. An email Dell sent reader Andy, who also participated in the battery replacement program, explains:

Separately, you may receive what appears to be an invoice for your replacement battery. Please disregard this document which was automatically generated by the tool for standard replacement parts. Batteries replaced as part of this recall are provided at no charge to you.

Although we would probably get a kick out of the video Lowell promised, it's not necessary to blow up any of your computers in protest. Just toss that piece of paper in the trash and go back to building your twenty-foot potato cannon.

UPDATE: In our rush to correct ourselves, we forgot to mention something very important. Luckily, reader Thomas C. did it for us:

When you're Dell and your laptops start spontaneously exploding, even taking out trucks and houses in the conflagration, it only takes every single site on the net posting pictures of the fires to prod you into doing the responsible thing and initiating a recall.

But recalls are expensive. How best to recoup losses? Heck, why not charge the customers?

Lowel G. wrote us with a rather horrifying story of being sent an invoice for his recalled Dell battery. Worse yet, he can't get any response from Dell, who claim that every time something leaves the warehouse — recall or not — they send out an invoice. And, no doubt, many hapless suckers pay them.

Shame on Dell. First, they sell you a hand grenade instead of a laptop; then, they invoice you when you aren't willing to pull out the pin with your teeth and drop it down your pants. Lowel's email, after the jump.

You can see the the look of surprise, or should I say a look of crazed madness on my face after receiving a billing statement from Dell for a battery they recalled.

About a month after Dell started recalling the laptop batteries a friend told me that Dell was recalling laptop batteries and if I had checked mine to see if it was on their list. To my shock and horror my battery was on their list! But why didn't they call me, email me, or send a letter in the mail about the recall? Ok, so I went to their web site and put my info into their system so that I could receive a new battery.

Two days later the battery arrived. Wow, that was fast, But wait a month later I received a billing statement in the mail showing I owed Dell $74.92 for the recalled battery replacement.

So being the crazed madman that I am when It comes to companies that down right screw up, I called Dell asking why I received a bill for the replacement battery. The Dell customer service representative, Chinese I think, no Indian, Oh wait it was........ Hell I don't know what the customer service representative was, but all I know was I had the worst experience trying to get this woman to understand my problem.

After about 40 minutes on the phone with her I threatened to take my computers and blow them up, and then go out and by a Mac. For some reason she started understanding my problem, and stated that any time a product leaves their warehouse that an invoice is generated (I wonder how many people paid that invoice). Boy, I flipped out on her after hearing that, and asked to speak to a manager so that I could file a complaint. Of course She started having a hard time understanding me again. 20 minutes later she finally told me that I would have to call back on a Monday because no manger was available on Friday's and that I could make my complaint then.

Of course being unsatisfied with that answer, and like I said before, being the crazed madman that I am when It comes to companies that down right screw up, I went to Dell's web site to get a "contact us" email address write to and file a complaint. Once again, I got the run around, but this time it was on their web site. Finally I found a way to contact them (you know those "leave your comments" boxes) So I sent in my complaint through their site.

I received an email back right away (automated ~e-mail Dell should have sent to tell me about the recall in the first place ~ see attachment). So I waited, and I waited, and I waited, for a real reply, finally I received an e-mail back from Dell (See attachment). Now I am pissed off more than ever before and was wondering if you folks could help me out by finding an address to the President or an upper level so that I can write and file a formal complaint. If I can get an address and write to them and still get no satisfaction, then I'll make a video of me blowing up all my Dell computers (3) plus my wife's laptop, and my sons laptop (five Dell's total) which I'll send to Dell. Then I'll go buy HP, Compact or other type computers. Really makes me wonder how long stuff like this has been going on with Dell, and how may people actually paid those invoices! I think I'll send them a invoice for $74.92 for my time being wasted!

According to Gizmodo, they "will only malfunction if you smash it on a table...and...a spring in the battery latch [punctures] the battery."

What a concept, recall the batteries before they explode in users hands.

415 of the computers under his domain] need battery replacements. Apple said that to process his request he needs to "supply them with the serial number from each and every battery and iBook in spreadsheet form to make the swap."

This bothers him. He says, "I'll get right on that Apple, in the copious amounts of spare time that I have! I'm supposed to drop everything I'm doing and spend hours rectifying a screwup that I am the victim of. Bastards!"

While the magnitude be staggering, we're not sure what else Apple is supposed to do. Maybe Paul can get the school to offer students extra credit for helping you transcribe? We're surprised there isn't some nice, curvy Mac app that can "sense" which machines are affected and iNtuit the serial numbers into a multimedia mashup.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion but they should not get in the way of facts. Dell does not design its products as you report. Dell, the acting head of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and others are on record as saying the root cause of the battery issue is a Sony manufacturing issue — and not a Dell design issue. If that is not enough, then perhaps Apple's recall today of 1.8 million Sony batteries will drive home reality. Speaking for Dell, we have worked very closely with Sony, are confident they have they rectified the problem, and we have every confidence in their batteries going forward.

Pope, thank you for reaching out. Now the niceties are out of the way... Dell doesn't design its own products? Well then who does? Guess that's one way to keep costs down.

Just kidding, we are deliberately misconstruing your comment for comedic effect.

But seriously, what then do you make of what a Sony spokesman says to Consumer Affairs at the bottom of this article? ""We believe the fire was caused by the combination of batteries and system architecture."

Question mark.

Second Question. Beyond what others are saying, is Dell saying that architecture in no way contributed to the battery fires?

At Pope's request, we're extending a comments invite so perhaps we have a new comments participant.

Due to overwhelming popular demand, the Apple Battery Program site was down for a bit. Banuba was forced to phone the call center to find his computer was affected.

"After 18:25 on hold, a CSR named Tim answered the phone, by leaving dead air and the sound of a call center for almost 30 seconds while I—sounding manly and not like a moron at all—said "helloooooooo" repeatedly into dead air."

Eventually Tim came back but it was all for naught. The Apple reps are using the same website to diagnose and process battery exchanges. Could he please try his call again later, maybe in an hour or two?

Of course, either of them could have looked in this handy chart provided by some guys calling themselves the Consumer Product Safety Commission or some such nonsense.

Apple announced a recall of 1.8 million laptop batteries.

If you own a 12 or 15-inch PowerBook G4, or a 12-inch iBook G4, check the serial number against the ones listed at http://support.apple.com/batteryprogram. You can request a replacement battery there or call (800) 275-2273

The recall news comes "hot on the heels" of Dell & Sony's battery recall last week.

"Apple Recalls Batteries" [CPSC] (Thanks to Tim & Jay!)

"You need to know how much energy the computer extracts from the battery, and how a system is designed to manage the current flow that generates heat inside the battery. Knowing the limitation at the critical temperature is important," said the improbably named Bodo Arlt, publisher of Bodo's Power Systems Magazine in Germany.

The problem with the architecture is that Dell places the battery near the hottest areas of the computer, where as other laptop companies try to put it someplace... you know.... cooler. Where it won't explode.And, of course, there is no thermometer that automatically shuts down the computer either.

As if to emphasize the rareness of a battery defect causing a Dell to explode, the truck of Thomas Forqueran was burnt to a cinder by a laptop not recalled by Dell. But "Sony screwed up their batteries" is always a better excuse than "We don't know how to make our product."

Dell Battery Recall May Not Be The Answer [Consumer Affairs]

Still, even though watch battery replacement is the career choice endorsed by the National Down Syndrome Congress, mistakes can happen. Things can break. When that happens, we're usually understanding, but we expect resolution. Unless we're at Dakota Watch Pagoda in the Springfield Mall, in which case, we expect our expensive watch to promptly be squirreled away and never seen again.

Mike B. writes about a fubared watch battery replacement and his MIA watch after the jump:

On the 4th of June I noticed my watch battery in my Diesel watch was dead. I was in close proximity to a Dakota Watch pagoda in the Springfield Mall, so I asked the girl behind the counter if they replaced batteries on all kinds of watches. She said that they did and that it would be about 10 minutes, so I handed mine to her and browsed the cases.

About 15 minutes later she turns around and with the most sheepish look on her face says: "I've never,like, replaced a battery in this kind of watch before, and I noticed the pin was like, placed in there funny, and when I went to pull it out it
like, broke... I'm sooooo sorry, and we'll send it off to get repaired and stuff."

I was angry that she broke my watch, but at least she owned up to her mistake and was willing to fix it, even if it did involve sending it away for 4 weeks. I may not have even been that upset but it was a $150 watch and it was a birthday gift, so it holds a great deal of sentimental value to me. She wrote me a claim ticket, which had a "promise date" of July 4 on it as the date it was due back.

July 4 comes and goes with no call. I called back and spoke to a woman who I later would know as Vanessa Twiman, the store manager. She informed me of the
store's policy to only send out shipments on Mondays, and that since the girl broke my watch on a Tuesday, it had to sit and wait for 6 days before it would even
leave their store. The "promise date" on my order had moved to the 10th, without any sort of notification.

Fast forward to today, the 10th. I call back because I've not heard my phone ring, and UPS and FexEx both have pretty much made the rounds today. Once again
Vanessa is there with the same story, only this time the store just did inventory yesterday and didn't get a shipment today. (I'm not sure how any of this is my
problem, but ok.)

So, now I'm left without my watch, 5 weeks later, and I'm dealing with this woman who hasn't once apologized for her employee breaking it in the first place, hasn't tried to accomodate me at all, and hasn't made any effort outside of the exact letter of her DOR to see that my watch comes back in a timely fashion. I'm forwarding this email to the customer service email at Dakota as well.