Sony has recalled about 1,700 Vaio laptops in what has become a long line of battery-related recalls for the Japanese electronics maker.
The laptops contain Panasonic lithium-ion battery packs that were installed between February and October 2013.
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission says although no incidents or injuries have been reported, they posed overheating, burning and fire hazards.
In 2006, millions of laptops containing Sony cells and made by computer firms Dell, Apple, Hitachi, Toshiba, Fujitsu and Lenovo were recalled.
In 2008, 73,000 Vaio laptops were recalled, although this was said to be because of wiring faults and a flaw in the circuit boards.
Just two years later, in 2010, thousands more Vaio models were recalled for ‘overheating’ and then in 2014, Panasonic’s battery packs were blamed for Vaio Fit 11A hybrid laptop-tablet devices catching fire.
This last recall should be the last laptop recall for Sony, who offloaded its Vaio division in 2014 to private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners so it could concentrate on smartphones and tablets.
Following a swathe of media reports about the dangers of lithium batteries, latterly the issue of exploding hoverboards, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) banned lithium-ion batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft from April 1 this year.
The organisation also ordered that only lithium cells and batteries with less than 30% state of charge could be shipped as cargo.
