Dell and Sony knew about battery problems nearly a year ago, waited for catastrophic failures

“Dell and Sony knew about and discussed manufacturing problems with Sony-made Lithium-Ion batteries as long as ten months ago, but held off on issuing a recall until those flaws were clearly linked to catastrophic failures causing those batteries to catch fire, a Sony Electronics spokesman said,” Paul F. Roberts reports for InfoWorld.

“Spokesman Rick Clancy said the companies had conversations in October 2005 and again in February 2006. Discussions were about the problem of small metal particles that had contaminated Lithium-Ion battery cells manufactured by Sony, causing batteries to fail and, in some cases, overheat,” Roberts reports.

Roberts reports, “Sony declined to characterize the discussions between the companies that took place in October, 2005, and then again in February, except to say that they were ‘specific to particular cells of batteries in battery packs used in Dell notebooks,’ Clancy said.”

“The CPSC is in ongoing talks with Sony about its notebook batteries beyond its order with Dell, said Wolfson,” Roberts reports. “He declined to say which laptop makers the company was working with, or to say whether it would do a broader recall of any Sony batteries with the metal particle contamination problem.”

Full article here.

Funny editorial cartoon here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Whit” for the heads up.]

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