The lithium-ion battery packs for certain Toshiba laptop computers can overheat, posing burn and fire hazards to consumers. Toshiba has received four reports of certain battery packs overheating and melting. As a result, the company is recalling 91,000 battery packs in the United States, plus an additional 10,000 units that were sold in Canada.
The recalled battery packs were manufactured by Panasonic in China and Japan and then sold with Toshiba laptops at Office Depot, Staples and other electronics stores nationwide, as well as online from June 2011 through January 2016 for between $500 and $1,000 for the laptop and between $70 and $130 for the battery pack. These lithium-ion battery packs were installed in 39 models of Toshiba Portege, Satellite, and Tecra laptops. They were also sold separately and installed by Toshiba as part of a repair. A complete list of recalled battery pack part numbers can be found on Toshiba’s website.
Consumers who own the recalled batteries should power off their laptops, remove the battery and follow the instructions to obtain a free replacement. In the meantime, the laptops can still be used by plugging directly into AC power.
