Just six months after saying Acer Inc. laptop PC users would not need to replace any batteries amid a massive global recall, a company subsidiary announced a recall for 27,000 batteries in the U.S.

Acer America Corp. said Wednesday that the rechargeable lithium ion batteries contain cells made by Sony Energy Devices Corp. that could overheat and potentially cause a fire. The recall is being made in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The announcement follows a number of high profile laptop PC battery recalls related to Sony-made cells. The recalls started with Dell Inc. last August, and continued on to nearly every major PC vendor in the world, including Lenovo Group Ltd. and Sony Corp. itself. Over 9.6 million laptop PC batteries have been recalled so far.

No users have reported problems with overheating batteries in Acer laptops, the company said. It provided a list of TravelMate and Aspire brand notebook PCs sold in the U.S. between May 2004 through November 2006 that contain faulty batteries.

A Web site set up for the battery recall lists affected laptop models and offers users instructions about how to get a replacement.

Customers should stop using the recalled batteries immediately, Acer said, and use their AC adapter and power cord until a replacement battery arrives.

IDG News Service

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