Apple recalling 1.1 million laptop batteries

[Greg Boston]

Apple Computer is recalling 1.1 million laptop batteries supplied by Sony, citing a fire hazard, The Associated Press reports.

Can't find any more info at the moment.

-gb-

[Chris Hurd]

Same thing as the Dell laptop situation recently reported on major news outlets.

[Eric Hansen]

Here's more info. https://depot.info.apple.com/batteryexchange/index.html

Eric Hansen
www.ehansenproductions.com

[Mack Fisher]

The pictures of the buisnessmen with burning laptops are pretty funny. I see them everywhere.

[Chris Barcellos]

Did you hear Jim Romes (the Jungle) take on it. Says he is able to barbecue on his Apple...

This was in a "What to Do" box on WallStreetJournal.com in an article about the recall. I thought the info below (even with the repeat of the web site) would be helpful, so those visiting this link could see instantly which apple laptops are affected.

"Apple says affected batteries were sold with three models of Apple notebooks, and may have been purchased separately. Here are the part numbers for the batteries. Visit http://www.apple.com/support/batteryexchange for more information.
12-inch iBook G4: A1061
12-inch PowerBook G4: A1079
15-inch PowerBook G4: A1078 and A1148"

[Zack Birlew]

I saw a pitcure of some guy putting a square of tin foil on an upside down Mac and cooking some eggs from the heat on the bottom where the battery is. The eggs looked pretty tasty. =)

But seriously, these things have just been getting too hot. Also, I thought the new Intel processors were supposed to run cooler than even the coolest Pentium 4's of old, so what's with the batteries blowing up?

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Jack Felis

I thought the new Intel processors were supposed to run cooler than even the coolest Pentium 4's of old, so what's with the batteries blowing up?

The recall affects batteries that came with the older G4 laptops. You might want to take another look at Derek's post above.

-gb-

[Zack Birlew]

Oops! But I thought this was for the Intel ones too and if not then it should be because something is overheating in those notebooks.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Originally Posted by Jack Felis

Oops! But I thought this was for the Intel ones too and if not then it should be because something is overheating in those notebooks.

Yeah, the battery recall only effects the older batteries sold during certain periods with the older systems. IMO, the whole battery recall is being blown way out of proportion and judging by the timing of Dell and Apple's announcements, I'm going to guess that this has a lot more to do with publicity than actual customer care. In the end, this recall comes back to a couple productions of of Sony battery cells. Tons of other laptops on the market (and other portable devices) used these faulty cells, where are these recalls going to end? Who's next to recall their batteries? eMachines? Gateway? They both use Sony batteries periodically just as Dell and Apple do.

As for the newer Intel chips running cooler, they do. But even a "cool" running CPU is still hot enough to fry an egg, even under moderate loads. It just means the surrounding system doesn't need as much infrastructure for cooling and doesn't require as much power to run the chip. ...Smaller notebooks. They Macbooks do run hot, but the latest firmware updates seem to help with that. I know my HP notebook gets super hot over the HDD compartment and that's where I rest my left hand while I'm using it. Gets uncomfortable at times. The plastic shell doesn't get hot enough, but I could probably cook an egg on there if it were an aluminum housing. Perhaps this is why I've already gone through 2 HDDs in the thing. heh.

[Jeff Sayre]

They're actually recalling 1.8 million batteries and the most recent information can be found on Apple's website here:

https://support.apple.com/ibook_powe...nge/index.html


Also, Mac Rumors has some useful links for those who are interested in more detail:

http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2006/...24134647.shtml

[Boyd Ostroff]

Well I checked and my 15" aluminum 1ghz Powerbook's battery isn't one of the model numbers on the recall list. At work we have a 12" iBook G4 and the battery model number is on the list, but the serial number isn't in the range of the recall.

We have several Dell laptops here also, and so far none of them appear to be on the list either. So hopefully I won't be seeing anything like this around here ;-)

http://www.theinquirer.net/images/ar...%20banger1.jpg

[Jeff Sayre]

Boyd:

I think they were just burning a DVD in-between sessions. ;)

[Bob Zimmerman]

My 15" powerbook is ok too. It is just ones with batteries made buy Sony from like 2003 to Aug of 2006.