For the second time in two months, Sony’s name is associated with overheating problems, forcing a major recall on more than 100,000 batteries found in Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Dell Notebook Computers. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the lithium-ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers.

The batteries in question have either been sold with the laptops or separately, as follows: on Hewlett-Packard laptops they were sold from December 2004 through June 2006; on Toshiba laptops, they were sold from April 2006 to October 2005, and on Dell laptops they were sold from November 2004 to November 2005.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission advised consumers to immediately remove the recalled batteries from their computers and contact the computer manufacturers for a free replacement.

The announcement came two months after Sony was forced to recall over 70,000 VAIO notebooks, for overheating problems in the wiring system this time.

But that is nothing compared to the 2006 situation, when the company reported incidents of overheating laptop batteries. Dell, Apple, Toshiba and Lenovo recalled over 9 million batteries manufactured by Sony, after receiving customer complaints. In July and August 2007, Toshiba was forced to recall another 11,000 notebooks powered by Sony batteries.

In August 2007, Sony was forced to repeat the experience with the DSC-T5 digital cameras (they had to recall 350,000 units and replace them with new ones for free).

At the time, Sony reported some “irregularity during the initial part production, the adhesive strength of the metal coating on this part. As a result, it became more likely that damage to the bottom casing could cause the metal coating to peel away and warp outward.”