Charring, melting laptop batteries cause HP to issue voluntary recall

HP's Envy 13 Ultrabook. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Those who have purchased a new HP laptop in the past two years should take note of the company's latest voluntary recall. HP announced that it's recalling batteries for select laptop models, including some in the ProBook, Envy, and ZBook families. The company received eight reports of these lithium-ion batteries overheating, melting, or charring, as well as one report of a minor injury caused by the malfunctioning batteries.

"We are taking immediate action to address this issue including a voluntary recall and replacement of the batteries," HP's statement says. "This action pertains to 0.1 percent of the HP systems sold globally over the past two years."

HP has a full list of the affected laptops on its battery program website. Included in the recall are a number of HP ProBook G2 and G3 models, ZBook 17 and Zbook Studio laptops, and Pavilion x360 and Envy m6 laptops, among others. The laptops were sold from December 2015 through December 2017 at a number of authorized retailers including Best Buy and Amazon, as well as HP's own website.

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