Many students who purchased laptops and laptop batteries as part of the Rensselaer Mobile Computing Program may see “explosive” performances from their machines. On September 28, IBM and Lenovo—the company that has taken over the Thinkpad line of laptops—announced a recall of certain batteries manufactured by Sony, including some that were distributed with the RPI T-43s and T-60s.
This announcement came after a laptop caught fire at Los Angeles International Airport in September due to an overheating battery. This occured after a number of other computer manufacturers recalled several of their own Sony-made batteries for similar reasons.
The recall applies to batteries purchased between February 2005 and September 2006 for certain laptops in the T-, X-, and R-series. Members of the RPI community can take their batteries to Rensselaer Computer Repair on the lower level of the Voorhees Computing Center. Replacements are not yet ready; more details will be released to the campus when they are available.