340,000 Laptop Batteries Recalled

Toshiba is recalling worldwide 340,000 batteries made by Sony Corp. for its laptops, the latest in a series of embarrassing battery problems for Sony.

The latest problem in the batteries causes the laptops to sometimes stop recharging or run out of power, but no injuries or other accidents have been reported, Toshiba Corp. spokesman Keisuke Omori said Tuesday, while declining to give the number for the reported problems.

The defect is not directly related to the problem behind last month's recall of Sony batteries by Dell and Apple, which cited concerns that the batteries could overheat and catch fire.

Dell Inc. asked customers to return 4.1 million faulty laptop batteries, while Apple Computer Inc. recalled 1.8 million batteries worldwide.

In both those cases, the troubled lithium-ion batteries were made by Sony Energy Devices Corp., a Japan-based subsidiary of Sony Corp.

Tuesday's recall affects 100,000 laptop batteries in the U.S., 45,000 in Japan, and the rest in other parts of the world.