A risk of fire hazard has caused Sony to recall 100,000 batteries used by five laptop manufacturers, .

Around 74,000 laptops sold by HP and 14,400 from Toshiba have been recalled. 40 cases of overheating; four cases in which users suffered minor burns, and 21 cases of damage from fire were reported. The faulty batteries are also used in laptops from Dell, Acer and Lenovo.

Back in 2006 a much bigger recall of 9.6 million Sony PC batteries occurred, costing Sony around $360 million.

This begs the question: Should quality control and safety checks be tightened at Sony? I certainly wouldn’t be a happy bunny if my new laptop burst into flames and destroyed my property. I’d imagine the same would be true of most people.

In this author’s opinion the matter should be given a full in-depth internal investigation. I certainly would currently be suspicious of any laptop which I knew was fitted with a Sony battery.

In fact I’d go so far as to advise all laptop users to have a fire bucket conveniently placed nearby, just in case the worst case scenario comes to the fore.

We all have to take risks; indeed life itself comes with the ultimate risk of death or injury. Unnecessary risks such as this one caused by sloppy manufacturing are a bit beyond the pale though.

Please do comment and state your opinions: There’s a comment box down below for you to express your thoughts in writing.

If building your own laptop you are advised to avoid using Sony batteries.