HP laptop battery ALERT – Owners warned that they need to check their PCs immediately

If you own an HP laptop then you should check the battery immediately.

That’s the warning coming from the US firm who says that some PCs could potentially have an issue which could cause the battery to overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to customers.

HP originally pushed out this alert last year which was then updated again in January but it has now added more laptops to the list that could be facing these battery issues.

The new update was announced on March 12 with around 78,500 machines thought to be hit by the problems – that’s in addition 50,000 that were previously recalled in the U.S. in January 2018.

If your laptop is affected then HP will replace the battery free of charge via authorised technicians.

HP is also releasing an update to the BIOS to add batteries affected by the program expansion.

The updated BIOS places the battery in “Battery Safety Mode” so that the notebook or workstation can be safely used without the battery by connecting to an HP power adaptor. Batteries affected by this recall should immediately be put into “Battery Safety Mode”.

Battery Safety Mode is only applicable to HP products affected by this recall.

If the validation process identifies a battery as being eligible for replacement, the BIOS update should be applied and the system should be rebooted.

During the reboot process, an option will be presented to enable Battery Safety Mode.

Accepting Battery Safety Mode causes the battery to discharge and to cease future charging until Battery Safety Mode is disabled.

HP strongly recommends accepting Battery Safety Mode so that the notebook or mobile workstation can be safely used by connecting to an HP power adaptor.

In a post on its site, the firm says that: “HP’s primary concern is for the safety of our customers. HP is proactively notifying customers, and will provide replacement battery services for each verified, eligible battery, at no cost.

“For customers with 5 or more potentially affected batteries, HP has put in place a process to assist with validation and ordering.”

HERE’S WHICH PCS ARE AFFECTED

Batteries affected by this program may have been shipped with specific HP Probook 64x (G2 and G3), HP ProBook 65x (G2 and G3), HP ProBook 4xx G4 (430, 440, 450, 455, and 470), HP x360 310 G2, HP ENVY M6, HP Pavilion x360, HP 11 notebook computers and HP ZBook (17 G3, 17 G4, and Studio G3) mobile workstations sold worldwide from December 2015 through April 2018.

They were also sold as accessories or provided as replacements from December 2015 through December 2018 for the above products, as well as additional products through HP or an authorized HP Service Provider, including certain HP Mobile Thin Client products.

source: express.co.uk