Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) is recalling several thousand laptop computer battery packs because mechanical problems with the pack’s latch could lead to overheating of the battery.The recall applies to approximately 6,000 battery packs that were shipped with its CF-W4G Let’s Note W4 laptop computers in April and May 2005, the company said Tuesday. The recall applies only to machines shipped in Japan.The problems arise if the owner sometimes drops the machine or sets it down on a table very roughly, said Akira Kadota, a spokesman for the company in Tokyo. On such occasions, the small spring in the latch can penetrate the battery pack and cause a short circuit that leads to overheating, he said. Panasonic has documented two cases to date of this happening with the battery packs under recall.“This is very different from the Sony case,” he said, referring to recent recalls by Dell and Apple Computer of almost 6 million battery packs containing Sony-made cells. Sony said the presence of metallic particles inside the battery meant there is a chance that the cells could overheat and catch fire under certain circumstances. The cells in the batteries under recall were not made by Sony or Panasonic, said Kadota. He wouldn’t name the battery maker.Panasonic has posted details of the recall on the Internet in Japanese. -Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)Related Links: Apple, Dell Plot Battery Standards Dell to Recall 4.1M Batteries Due to Fire Hazard Apple to Recall 1.8M Laptop BatteriesCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content brandpost Sponsored by G42 Understanding the impact of AI on society, environment and economy By Jane Chan Dec 03, 2023 4 mins Artificial Intelligence opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe