The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued an alert that Toshiba on Wednesday has greatly expanded its recall of laptop computer battery packs due to burn and fire hazards.
More specifically, these are Panasonic lithium-ion battery packs that have been found susceptible to overheating in 41 models of the Toshiba Satellite laptop, which runs Windows.
The firm has received five reports of the battery pack overheating and melting, including one additional report since the first recall announcement; no injuries have been reported.
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Toshiba is urging customers to visit its recall webpage to run a check on their machine to determine whether they've got a potentially bad battery pack in their laptop.
"If it is part of the recall, consumers should power off the laptop, remove the battery and follow the instructions to obtain a free replacement battery pack. Until a replacement battery pack is received, consumers should use the laptop by plugging into AC power only. Battery packs previously identified as not affected by the March 30, 2016 recall are included in this expanded announcement," the company says on its website.
The expanded recall applies to 83,000 laptop battery packs sold in the United States, while another 15,000 were sold in Canada and Mexico.
This all piles on 91,000 battery packs recalled in March. The expanded recall entails machines sold between June 2011 and November 2016, and includes battery packs sold separately and installed by Toshiba as part of repairs
The laptops were sold at Office Depot, Staples and other stores, as well as via Toshibadirect.com and other websites.
The laptops were imported by Toshiba America Information Systems and were built in China.