HP has announced that it is recalling around 101,000 laptop batteries due to overheating issues. Affecting a myriad of laptops sold March 2013 and October 2016, the recall (via CNET) is actually an expansion to an earlier recall in which an additional 41,000 laptop batteries were recalled over the same concerns in June 2016.
A note related to the recall on the Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) website states:
Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled batteries, remove them from the notebook computers and contact HP for a free replacement battery. Until a replacement battery is received, consumers should use the notebook computer by plugging it into AC power only.Batteries previously identified as not affected by the June 2016 recall could be included in this expanded announcement. Consumers are urged to recheck their batteries.
In all, batteries compatible with HP, Compaq, HP ProBook, HP ENVY, Compaq Presario, and HP Pavilion computers are involved in the recall. Batteries bought separately are also a part of the recall. According to the note, affected batteries have bar codes attached to them that start with one of the following: 6BZLU, 6CGFK, 6CGFQ, 6CZMB, 6DEMA, 6DEMH, 6DGAL and 6EBVA.
Alternatively, an easy way of determining whether you have an affected battery is to use a validation utility available from HP. However, at least at the time of this writing, HP is experiencing some loading issues with its recall site that may make grabbing the utility difficult.
