Crumbs
Rich T finds some tasty titbits you might have missed in the week's news
Wednesday 20 June 2007, 4:13 PM
Gateway, Toshiba return to battery hell
Just as we thought all those battery scares were over, Gateway and Toshiba have found more problems.
It was just eight months ago that Gateway recalled 35,000 batteries and Toshiba many thousand more, amid fears that users' notebooks might catch fire.
Now Gateway says it is to recall 14,000 more batteries, noting that the batteries involved are Samsung this time, and not Sony. Fortunately for us Brits, the problems are constrained solely to machines sold in the US, but it's a bit concerning nonetheless.
Toshiba's also been playing with fire, finding certain battery packs sparking into flame. These ones are made by Sony, and the problems arose, apparently, because someone didn't follow the installation guidelines of both Toshiba and Sony.
Naughty naughty. In the meantime, if you've bought one of the affected products, tell Gateway/Toshiba pronto. And mind your fingers.
PreviousComments on this post
Toshiba are perfectly capable of producing their own excellent batteries. My 10 year old Toshiba Satellite battery works now like the first day I bought the computer. It never overheats and gives continuous power for several hours without needing recharging. The recharge is quick. Compare this with my Acer, and the ratio is reversed. This, I believe, a Sony battery, takes a couple of hours or more to recharge and then provides the grand total of 40 minutes use. The damn thing gets so hot I cannot put it on my knees to work. This machine is so badly put together anyway that the keys come off the keyboard. Why on earth are Toshiba computers now using Sony batteries?? If they reverted to using their own, they could get a reputation as producing the best machines on the market.
Linds
