Sony Charged with Knowing that Their Laptop Batteries Would Overheat and Start Fires   10/6/2006 - 1,275 views, 1 Comment

As the number of Sony laptop batteries affected by a recall of the flawed Sony batteries continues to skyrocket, Fujitsu announced this week that they were also recalling some 287,000 Sony laptop batteries used in current-model Fujitsu laptops. Apple and Dell had most notoriously and recently recalled flawed Sony batteries, after laptops from both lines had caught fire under normal use when their Sony batteries had overheated and ignited.

The total number of Sony batteries recalled worldwide has now exceeded a whopping 7.5 million.

Now, according to an article this week in Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, it appears that Sony knew about the battery problems as early as the fall of 2005. That was when the first Dell laptop burst into flames, igniting both itself and a public outcry at the problem. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun article, Sony back then determined that the problem was a flaw in the battery manufacturing process which had caused metal particles to be left behind in the battery.

Of course, the recall is estimated to have already cost Sony nearly a half billion dollars, however the cost to consumers who have had to deal with their computer catching on fire is, well, priceless.