6,000 More Laptop Batteries Recalled

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Tuesday it has begun recalling 6,000 lithium-ion batteries used in Panasonic-brand notebook computers on concerns they might overheat.

The company says the batteries were not made by Sony Corp., whose faulty batteries were involved in huge recalls by Dell Inc. and Apple Computer Inc. last month.

A Matsushita spokesman declined to specify the maker.

According to Dow Jones Newswires, Matsushita has started replacing batteries from the initial shipments of its Let's Note CF-W4G notebook PCs produced in April and May 2005, the report said.

The recall of the batteries for Let's Note CF-W4G notebook PCs only affects Japan, said company spokesman Akira Kadota.

The spokesman said the problem does not stem from the lithium-ion battery itself but from the battery cover. The batteries could produce heat and change shape if the battery cover is damaged due to the poor strength of the latch, according to the report.

The size of the recall is far smaller than last month's recalls by Dell and Apple. Dell asked customers to return 4.1 million faulty laptop batteries, while Apple recalled 1.8 million batteries worldwide, citing concerns that their laptops to overheat and catch fire.

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