In January 2018, Hewlett-Packard (HP) recalled 50,000 lithium-ion laptop batteries that were found to be defective. The recall was initiated after the company began to receive reports of batteries in certain models of its laptops, overheating, charring or melting, resulting in $1,500 worth of property damage and first degree burns. More recently, an additional 78,500 HP laptop batteries have been recalled.
Since the first recall, HP has received eight additional reports of the laptop batteries malfunctioning after overheating, melting or charring. One person said they experienced a minor injury in the form of first degree burns and two other users reported property damage that amounted to $1,100.
The lithium-ion batteries were included in a number of HP’s laptops, including the ProBooks series, Pavillion 11-inch series, 11 Notebook series, ZBook series and as replacement batteries for the ZBook Studio G4, ProBook 4xx G5 series, ENVY 15 series and the Mobile Thin Clients series.
After the original recall, users were urged to run the Validation Utility software HP provides to see whether their battery was among those recalled. If it is determined that it indeed falls under the recalled battery category, an automatic fix would install that would immediately put their laptop in Battery Safe Mode. This software was designed to drain the battery to prevent it from being charged and avoid the risk of overheating melting or charring. Users were still able to use their HP laptops via AC power adapter and would receive a new battery at no charge. Additionally, because it wasn’t possible for users to replace the batteries themselves, a technician was sent to the consumer’s home to install the new one, also at no charge.
If you are located in West Virginia and have experienced a malfunction of your HP laptop battery that resulted in injuries, you should contact Charleston WV personal injury attorneys at Freeman & Chiartas. You will have the opportunity to discuss your case with a skilled Charleston defective product attorney. Your Charleston product liability attorney will advise you on the best course of action to take in your case.