15 Million Toshiba Laptop Adapters Recalled Over Burn and Fire Risks

An anonymous reader shared this report from CNN:Dynabook Americas, the company formerly known as Toshiba, has recalled 15.5 million Toshiba laptop AC adapters over potential burn and fire hazards. The company said it received 679 reports of the recalled AC adapters overheating or catching on fire, melting and burning, including 43 reports of minor burn injuries. Consumers should stop using the adapters immediately and contact them for a free replacement, Dynabook Americas said. The recall applies to AC adapters sold both alongside Toshiba personal laptop computers and sold separately, with date codes ranging between April 2008 through December 2012. The adapters were manufactured in China. More than 60 models are part of the recall. The company published a webpage listing the impacted model numbers and serial numbers for the adapters. Gatner points out the adapters are for "very old models," so "it's only a very small percentage of the population that is still using them." The article cites figures from Gartner showing that while Toshiba once led the laptop market, it now makes up about 1%. "Nowadays, Lenovo dominates the category with 25%, followed by HP (22%), Dell (17%) and Apple (9%)."

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