HP recalls 50,000 laptop batteries globally over safety issues

Global PC and printer giant HP Inc in cooperation with various government regulatory agencies has now issued a worldwide voluntary safety recall and replacement program for certain notebook computer and mobile workstation batteries.

"The quality and safety of all HP products is our top priority. We recently learned that batteries provided by one of our suppliers for certain notebook computers and mobile workstations present a potential safety concern," the company wrote in a blog post on Friday.

"We are taking immediate action to address this issue including a voluntary recall and replacement of the batteries. This action pertains to 0.1 percent of the HP systems sold globally over the past two years," the PC major added.

Batteries affected by this program were shipped with specific laptops like HP Probook 64x (G2 and G3), HP ProBook 65x (G2 and G3), HP x360 310 G2, HP ENVY m6, HP Pavilion x360, HP 11 notebook computers and HP ZBook (17 G3, 17 G4, and Studio G3) mobile workstations sold worldwide from December 2015 through December 2017. They were also sold as accessories or provided as replacements through HP or an authorized HP Service Provider.

Many of these batteries are internal to the system, which means they are not customer replaceable. HP is providing battery replacement services by an authorized technician at no cost. HP is also providing a BIOS update that places the battery in "Battery Safety Mode" so that the notebook or workstation can be safely used without the battery by connecting to an HP power adaptor. Batteries affected by this recall should immediately be put into "Battery Safety Mode".

Battery Safety Mode is only applicable to HP products affected by this recall. If the validation process identifies a battery as being eligible for replacement, the BIOS update should be applied and the system should be rebooted. During the reboot process, an option will be presented to enable Battery Safety Mode.

Accepting Battery Safety Mode causes the battery to discharge and to cease future charging until Battery Safety Mode is disabled. HP strongly recommends accepting Battery Safety Mode so that the notebook or mobile workstation can be safely used by connecting to an HP power adaptor. For more information please refer to the FAQs tab on this website.

HP's primary concern is for the safety of our customers. HP is proactively notifying customers and will provide replacement battery services for each verified, eligible battery, at no cost. For customers with 5 or more potentially affected batteries, HP has put in place a process to assist with validation and ordering.

Around 50,000 lithium-ion batteries sold as accessories or used as replacements through HP or an authorized HP service provider are being replaced over the danger of fire and overheating.

However, not all batteries in all HP ProBook 64x and 65x, HP x360 310 G2, HP ENVY, HP Pavilion x360, HP 11 notebooks and HP Zbook mobile workstations are affected by this recall.

The HP Battery Program Validation Utility will check if the battery in your notebook computer is affected. Validation using the utility generally takes less than 30 seconds.