Hewlett-Packard on Friday recalled 135,000 battery packs sold with its notebook computers shipped globally from March 2004 to May 2005.
While some 85,000 of the faulty lithium ion rechargeable packs were sold in the United States, the estimated impacted battery shipments to Asia Pacific are 2 percent of the total worldwide replacement program, the company said.
The product is being recalled following 16 reports of batteries overheating due to an internal short circuit. In four cases, these batteries caused minor property damage because their cases melted or became charred.
The affected third party battery packs are used with the following HP notebooks in Asia Pacific:
| HP Pavilion/Compaq Presario | HP Compaq |
| Pavilion zv5000 | nc6000 |
| Pavilion ze5000 | nc/nw8000 |
| Pavilion ze4000 | nx5000 |
| Presario R3000 | nx9000 |
| Presario 2100 | nx9005 |
| Presario 2500 | nx9100 |
| nx9010 |
The device maker has advised that notebooks affected should be used under A/C power as designed until the replacement battery pack arrives. Customers can contact HP for a free replacement via the replacement program Web site or call HP's Customer Support Centre in Australia on 13 10 47.
Malfunctioning batteries in portable computers and other devices such as mobile phones have often led to recalls by leading makers. Apple Computer recalled 128,000 batteries shipped with its PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 laptops earlier this year.
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