Compaq recalls power adapters
The company on Thursday issued a recall for the AC power adapters and their cords, used with Compaq Armada and Prosignia notebooks manufactured between September 1988 and July 2001.
There have been five reported incidents of fire and no reports of injury, Compaq said.
"We've worked very closely with the Consumer Product Safety Council to follow an orderly recall. We want to be very proactive to ensure the safety of our customers," Compaq spokesman Mike Hockey said.
The fire risk comes from electrical arcing inside the brick-shaped, plastic case that houses the adapter. This causes heat to build up, deforming the case and potentially leading to a fire, Hockey said.
The recall includes 594,000 units in North America, 620,000 units in Europe and 85,000 units in Latin America. The recall focuses on adapters with the serial numbers PPP003, PPP003SD and PP2012. The adapters came with Armada models 100S, 110, V300, M300, E500, M700, 3500 and E500S, as well as Prosignia models 100, 170 and 190.
It hasn't been a particularly good week for Compaq, which warned Tuesday that it will post an operating loss for the third quarter. Compaq CEO Michael Capellas blamed the cause on a "perfect storm," including slowed sales in the wake of the HP deal and logistics problems caused by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the recent typhoon in Taiwan.
Notebook power adapters have repeatedly been recalled due to potential fire hazard.
This summer, Apple Computer recalled 570,000 adapters, citing fire risk. IBM recalled 320,000 adapters for the same reason last year. And Dell recalled 233,000 adapters for its Latitude LM in 1997, citing risk of electrical shock.
The Consumers Product Safety Council said that Compaq notebook owners with the affected systems should discontinue using the adapter and contact Compaq for a free replacement.
Compaq and Dell Computer also have issued recalls for notebook batteries within the past year. Dell recalled 284,000 batteries in May, citing a flaw that caused one unit to catch fire. Last fall, Compaq recalled 55,000 notebook batteries in its Armada V300 and E500--two of the notebooks also involved in Thursday's adapter recall--saying the batteries could short-circuit and cause fires.
Information about the recall is available on the Consumer Product Safety Council's Web site.