It's not been a great week in the world of computing. The Meltdown and Spectre flaws have shaken the industry, and though it's not quite on the same scale, a number of HP laptop owners now face having their malfunctioning batteries replaced over the danger of fire and burns.
"These batteries have the potential to overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to customers," the company said in a statement. "For this reason, it is extremely important to check whether your battery is affected."
A worldwide voluntary recall has been issued for the affected devices, which were shipped between December 2015 and December 2017. It includes batteries sold as accessories or used as replacements through HP or an authorized HP service provider.
A list of affected devices is provided below. Customers can use HP's Validation Utility software to find out if their battery has been recalled.
If you do have a battery that needs replacing, the good news is that you'll still be able to use your laptop, albeit with limited portability. A BIOS update will put a device in Battery Safe Mode, which discharges the battery and stops it from being charged until the mode is disabled. Until the replacements arrive, the laptops will work through a HP power adaptor.
HP will send the batteries out free of charge. As they can't be replaced by customers, the company will help arrange an appointment with a technician for installation.
While this new issue affects around 50,000 batteries in the US alone, HP recalled 101,000 lithium-ion batteries due to fire and burn hazards in January last year. This was on top of the 40,000 it recalled in June 2016.
The recall affects batteries sold with, or as accessories for, the following models:
- HP Probook 640 G2
- HP ProBook 640 G3
- HP ProBook 645 G2
- HP ProBook 645 G3
- HP ProBook 650 G2
- HP ProBook 650 G3
- HP ProBook 655 G2
- HP ProBook 655 G3
- HP ZBook 17 G3
- HP ZBook 17 G4
- HP ZBook Studio G3
- HP x360 310 G2
- HP Pavilion x360
- HP ENVY m6
- HP 11 Notebook PC