Another Sony Meltdown?

OK, it’s not strictly a security question in the traditional sense, but you can’t get much less secure than having your computer catch on fire, wiping out your data and possibly a lot more.

Bloomberg News

reports that Sony Corp. has apologized for the bad batteries and it will replace about 3.5 million batteries found in Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Gateway, Sharp, Dell, Apple, Lenovo, and IBM laptops.

That’s 3.5 million MORE, not including the 4.1 million Dell system batteries already covered by the August 14 recall.

The cause, by the way, turns out to be a major manufacturing SNAFU.

This isn’t a general laptop battery problem or related to the brand of computer – it is a SONY-SPECIFIC threat and also time-specific, the bad batteries were made after July 2003.

My advice would be to do a quick check of just what brand of battery is in your system and, if it is Sony, consider buying a replacement immediately or leaving your laptop turned off with the battery out until you get a free replacement, why take a chance?