Toshiba, through the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, has issued a recall order for over 100,000 laptop battery packs.
There are about 91,000 units of the faulty batteries in the United States, with about 10,000 more in Canada. The battery packs were installed in 39 models of the Portege, Tecra and Satellite laptop models of Toshiba, as well as sold separately and installed by the company as part of repairs.
The battery packs were included in sales through electronic stores and Toshiba's online store, from June 2011 to January 2016.
The reason behind the recall order is that the batteries carry an overheating risk, which poses burn and fire hazards to consumers.
There have been no injuries reported in relation to the defect, but Toshiba is exercising caution with the launch of the recall order. There have been four reports of the battery packs overheating and melting though.
The battery packs that are included in the recall order are those that have part numbers beginning with G71C, with the complete list of affected battery pack part numbers posted on Toshiba's website. Customers can check if their battery packs need to be replaced by entering their laptop's model part number in the Toshiba website or by downloading a utility that will check the system if the battery is being recalled.
For customers that possess the faulty battery packs, they are advised to immediately stop using the battery pack and follow Toshiba's instructions to be able to receive a replacement free of charge. In the meantime, while waiting for the replacement to arrive, customers are advised to use their laptops by plugging them into AC power.
The recall order appears to be the biggest one made by Toshiba in connection with defective batteries since it was involved in the major battery recall of Sony, which started in 2006.
