Paul Morris·

HP Recalls Laptop Batteries Worldwide Due To Overheating And Fire Risk, Check To See If Your Model Is Affected

HP, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of cutting-edge Windows-based laptops, has announced a voluntary worldwide recall of batteries from certain laptops.

The safety and recall program only applies to certain laptop models with HP suggesting that they could pose a fire and burn hazard to owners.

The issue is known to only affect certain HP laptop models, which HP has listed for reference by customers and device owners. This is also being offered as a voluntary recall, which means that HP isn’t looking to force affected laptop owners to replace the battery but is strongly recommending that it’s done with immediate effect. There are a total of fifteen laptop models listed by HP in the ProBook, ZBook, x360, Pavillion, Envy, and 11 ranges. The recall was announced by HP in a dedicated post and included the assistance of “various government regulatory agencies”:

In January 2018, in cooperation with various government regulatory agencies, HP announced a worldwide voluntary safety recall and replacement program for certain notebook computer and mobile workstation batteries. These batteries have the potential to overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to customers. For this reason, it is extremely important to check whether your battery is affected.

Some of the affected devices actually have built-in internal batteries which means that owners simply can’t purchase or receive a new one and replace it manually with a quick swap out. It’s for that reason that HP is providing a service which allows affected owners to get a replacement battery from an authorized HP technician at no additional cost to the device owner.

If that isn’t immediately possible, then HP will also be releasing an imminent BIOS update which forces the battery on affected laptops into what’s called Battery Safe Mode. This mode will allow the laptop owner to plug the laptop into power using an HP power adapter and use the laptop safely by bypassing the battery. That is obviously a temporary measure.

As part of the recall, and to allow HP laptop owners to ascertain if they are actually affected, the company has also released a downloadable Battery Program Validation Utility that can be run on the laptop to determine if the device is affected. You can download that from the source link below.

(Source: HP)

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