HP recalls laptop batteries due to burn and fire risk

HP has issued a worldwide voluntary safety recall for two years of notebook batteries. These batteries are at risk of overheating, creating a fire or a burning hazard for users.

These defective batteries were sold between December 2015 and December 2017, affecting a wide range of shipping systems and even battery replacements. Models that are known to be affected include the HP Probook 64x (G2 and G3), HP ProBook 65x (G2 and G3), HP x360 310 G2, HP ENVY m6, HP Pavilion x360, HP 11 notebooks and HP ZBook (17 G3, 17 G4, and Studio G3) mobile workstations. Note that the HP ZBook Studio G4 did not ship with a defective battery, but were compatible with faulty replacement batteries.     

Most alarming is the fact that many of the affected notebooks do not have user replaceable batteries, which means that some users will have to ship their entire laptops to HP for a battery replacement after asking HP to get it replaced by an authorised technician. HP will also be offering firmware updates that are said to place affected batteries into “battery safe mode”, preventing any issues from occurring. HP says that all affected batteries should  “immediately” pe put on “battery safe mode”. 

    Many of these batteries are internal to the system, which means they are not customer replaceable. HP is providing battery replacement services by an authorized technician at no cost. HP is also providing a BIOS update that places the battery in “Battery Safety Mode” so that the notebook or workstation can be safely used without the battery by connecting to an HP power adaptor. Batteries affected by this recall should immediately be put into “Battery Safety Mode”.

To find out if your notebook’s battery is affected by this issue, HP users can download HP’s “Battery Validation Utility”, which can find out if your PC has an affected battery in around 30 seconds.