Exploding batteries

Lenovo has recently announced a battery recall program for some ThinkPad batteries. See the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission page for affected part numbers.

Background

Several cases of exploding Li-Ion batteries have been reported lately, for various laptop models. Consequentally, Dell and Apple have issued a recall of some of their laptop battery models containing Sony cells. Some airlines have banned use of Dell and Apple laptop batteries during flights.

There is also a documented case, acknowledged by Lenovo, of a ThinkPad T4x battery explosion. In another case, a 3rd party battery exploded in Alan Cox's laptop.

Earlier, an announcement by Lenovo from 2006-08-17 stated:

While no make or model of battery is 100% immune from failures or overheating, to date we have not seen any unusual pattern of problems in Lenovo or ThinkPad notebooks. Lenovo is not planning a battery recall at this time.