Fujitsu recalls laptop batteries over fire risk

Fujitsu has issued a recall notice throughout Europe for tens of thousands of laptop batteries that are at risk of overheating and catching fire.

The notice went out on Monday and affects a select group of batteries from the manufacturer's Amilo Pa2510, Pi2512 and Pi2515 notebook models, a Fujitsu spokesman told ZDNet UK.

"We think there's probably about 52,000 batteries affected, but... only a single-digit number of [overheating] instances have been reported," the spokesman said on Wednesday.

According to the spokesman, Fujitsu received no reports of the batteries catching fire. However, some of the overheating reports it received included users' worries over the chance of a fire occurring.

Owners of the affected models can find out whether their laptop batteries need to be exchanged by visiting a dedicated Fujitsu support page.

The manufacturer is offering free pick-up for the old batteries and free delivery for their replacements.

Fujitsu's spokesman would not say how much the replacement operation would cost the company, noting only that the situation was "one that we understand we'd have to meet the cost for".