Joe O

Sony is one of the MAJOR battery manufactures, and they make batteries under many "brand names," often using the "brand name" of the computer - or other device - maker who's buying them. Quite probably the "defect" in question came from only one of several battery factories, and possibly from a single run from a single line in that factory. It make take a while to determine whether any other batteries should be recalled - even if made by Sony in the same plant. Even batteries made on the same production line using different tooling may not be considered at risk.

A device manufacturer who issues a recall offer risks rather serious legal liabilities if the Consumer Product Safety Commission is not notifed and allowed to "give permission" before any public information is released, so "beaurocratic processing" must proceed before any other manufacturers can participate.

It must be noted that only 6 "incidents" have thus far been reported in 4 million batteries in the group being recalled, so the actual risk to users is "close to zero" - based on current statistics - for any particular person who has one of the ones being recalled now. There is said to be evidence that "mishandling" can progressively increase the likelihood of the kind of failures seen, so an early action may prevent a higher percentage of the ones "out there" from becoming a hazard.

You can search the database of recalls at the Consumer Product Safety Commission website. A search about a month ago, using "lithium" and "battery" as search terms, showed:

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

25JAN1996        Release # 96-064        CPSC, Texas Instruments Announce Battery Charger Recall For Travelmate 4000m Notebook Computers
04SEP1997; Rev 18JAN2002        Release # 97-183        CPSC, Digital Equipment Corp. Announce Recall of AC Adapters for Notebook Computers
21JUN2005        Alert #05-582         CPSC, Belkin Announce Recall of Batteries Sold with Bluetooth™ GPS Navigation System

Computer Battery Recalls by Date and CPSC Release Number (#)
These were the ones easy to find

27OCT2000        # 01-022        Compaq: Recall of Notebook Computer Battery Packs
03MAY2001        # 01-140        Dell Computer Corp.: Recall of Notebook Computer Batteries
13NOV2001        # 02-037        Computer Distributors: Recall of Batteries for Notebook Computers
19AUG2004        # 04-201        Apple: Recall of PowerBook Computer Batteries
20MAY2005        #05-179        Apple: Recall of iBook and PowerBook Computer Batteries
22JUN2005        #05-204        Battery-Biz: Recall of Notebook Computer Batteries
14OCT2005        #06-007        Hewlett-Packard Company: Recall of Notebook Computer Batteries
16DEC2005        #06-056        Dell: Recall of Notebook Computer Batteries
20APR2006        #06-145        HP Recalls Notebook Computer Batteries Due to Fire Hazard

Additional Battery Recalls have occurred for Cell Phones, GPS Nav Systems, and other small portable devices.

John