Gateway recalls 14,000 notebook batteries

Irvine (CA) – Gateway today issued a recall of 14,000 notebook batteries, which can overheat and create a potential fire hazard.

According to the company, the affected battery packs were sold between in the U.S. between May 2003 and August 2003 and shipped as either the primary or spare battery for 400VTX and 450ROG series notebooks. Gateway said that only battery packs with the part numbers 6500760 or 6500761 are recalled.

The recall apparently is not related to the a recall that affected more than 10 million notebook batteries manufactured by Sony. The Sony recall program is still in effect across multiple manufacturers.

In a press release sent out today, Toshiba said that it is “redoubling” its efforts to remove these battery packs from the market : A Toshiba notebook was reported to have caught fire on May 24 of this year, which prompted the manufacturer to launch a new round of “efforts to encourage customers to check their PCs and to get the battery replaced if it is on the [recall list] list.”