ASUS needs a battery recall

I'm assuming that the cells in the batteries are made by Sony... and since other manufacturers are recalling their batteries, I think ASUS should be pressured to do a recall also.

I don't care how many x amount of ASUS laptops explode in a year, I just want an honest answer from ASUS about this issue and what they are doing to prevent it.

 

That's quite a leap. What basis do you have to assume this?

 

I called ASUS Nederland today and asked them about my V6J batteries. They said the cells inside are made my Samsung and not Sony. They made it sound as if ASUS doesn't use Sony cells at all although I doubt that's true.

 

Why would you doubt that? Sony certainly isn't the only battery manufacturer out there. Asus has good business relations with Samsung, so it makes sense that they'd get batteries from them. As I recall, Z71v batteries are made by Samsung as well.

 

Does anyone read the threads I start? First, this would have been a great post to add to my battery recall thread, rather than making it a thread of its own, but nevertheless - jsis, no action means just as much as making a recall. The only models I know for a fact have Sony cells are spring of 2005 and earlier - and I can't prove ALL models. After that, there have been a lot of panasonic and another brand I couldn't identify until now - and that was samsung. I trying looking up the numbers and didn't get anything kicked back, but as soon as I put those in with samsung's name, I was able to put them together in many cell lists

 

... the fact that Panasonic, HP, Sharp, Apple, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, IBM/Lenovo, and Fujitsu had their own recalls. Convinced yet?

 

That doesn't matter, unless there are sony cells in your battery, a recall isn't going to mean anything. After readings your posts over the last six months or so about your battery life in general, I realize that it's probably the main thing you think about, but unless you want to crack open your battery and see if they're sony cells (sony cells are green by the way), don't call for a recall without any more information other than that everyone else is doing it. It's not a good excuse when a kid gets caught smoking pot in high school and it certainly doesn't work out any better in this situation.

... even if Asus recalls batteries they have sold made by Sony... even if that was every model they've ever made... and even some V6's... if there were panasonic or samsung cells in your particular battery, you wouldn't be part of the recall.... and you'd still be pissed off about your battery. So, for the sake of gaining some ammunition for this recall you say Asus "needs", take some initiative and pop open your battery. If you find sony cells in there, I'll be the first to back you because I know there are plenty of ties between Asus and Sony, especially in their batteries.... yet I have proof there have even been any cells made by Sony used in any systems after 12/2005.

 

Why do you think that it's my responsibility to check if my battery cell is made by Sony? If you represent ASUS then I would call you ignorant because it is the responsibility of the manufacturer to ensure that my battery is not a Sony. Otherwise, I would void my warranty by tampering the battery?!?

You even said it yourself that ASUS probably did use some Sony cells. Are they investigating the issue on which batteries are affected or what? If not, then they should do it and recall those batteries immediately.

 

If it isn't your responsibility, and as you say, is that of the manufacturer, then i can only say that the fact that they have not contacted you is a clear clear you do not posess a problematic battery.

It is, in fact, your responsibility to check if you have purchased a defective product. Companies are not liable to do that when they sell you their product.

 

I said that I did my own background research and pulled apart some batteries that were old to see what was in them. I haven't pulled apart any battery that was still under warranty - or worse yet - was new. I pulled apart some older batteries out of curiousity and in fact I started a thread to explain to the forum that there may be some issues, but we need to see how everything is dealt with and how it plays out against newer batteries. My understanding is that after an issue last year with Sony over the Z71v batteries - where they had a voluntary recall - twice - over the cells simply not charging, that Asus not only had Sony pay for all of the bad batteries, but after the second time they used another cell because they couldn't risk having to do that again.... completely seperate from the issue Sony faces today. So, after that point, the only evidence I have of batteries from this year and the core duo models would be panasonic cells in the W5 and W7 and samsung cells in the V6 and W2. That basically only leaves the W3 as a concern to me, but I'd put some money on panasonic there. Now, the A/F series.... The F3 and A8 just came out this year after all this stuff started in the public - and certainly well after it would have been known to Asus.... so I highly doubt sony cells were used in either of those lines at all. I would say that leaves the A7 / A6 (which are all of the Z92 barebone series models) as the only newer models I'd question.

Now, prior to 01/01/2006 - I don't know.... I saw green cells in that old Z71 battery... I saw green cells in an old M6n battery from 2004... I saw green cells on an old, old M1 battery from 2001.

I don't think Asus needs to "investigate", they'd have documentation on exactly what cells are in what systems and and on top of that - even when talking about sony cells, they make more than one model and only one model was to blame - it just so happened it was the most popular.

So, I guess I haven't answered your question fully... yes, if you want to be an activist and call me names and call me biased....... yeah, open your battery and void your battery warranty. It's a $100 battery and if it proves to be made with the cells in question, you could use it in a case against Asus - at the very least you can request you get a battery that is good... but at least you could "expose" them. Hell, if you break it open and there are Sony cells inside (let's worry about the model numbers after the fact), then I promise you the following:

1. Just for proving they're Sony cells, I will give you a new battery for your V6 or give you a $100 credit towards anything you want that we sell.

2. If the model numbers themselves match up to those being recalled by Sony, I will take you and your finding and take them right to Asus... only to tell Asus that we're both going to take them to take the proof to the FCC and make it public.

However, if they're not Sony cells (they would be green) - well that's enough for me... Go do that, document it, come back here and prove it either way... pictures all along the way and research the model numbers of the cells in the system and those recalled by sony.... do it all. The proof either way will be enough for me, but you have either two choices....

1. Do it and come back and show us your findings

2. Don't. All this would prove is either you don't trust my word to help you upon finding what you already believe is in your battery, or you found what's in your battery and don't want to share it because you'll feel like a fool. No one wants you to look like a fool and no one wants you to screw up your battery for no reason........ It's for the greater good and the odds are with you. Or you could see if the battery gets super hot and burns your house down and then you could sue Asus for millions..... It's up to you. I'm just trying to be a sport about it and prove not only do I care my customers - but I care about the community and I put a lot of time, money and effort into researching even something like this - which has no chance of monetary gains on my side and has the potential life of our business riding on what I even believe to be a very probable answer.

The question lies in what did Asus know, when did they know and what did they do about it. If they're not affected by this issue as a matter of mere happenstance, than we and Asus should consider ourselves lucky.

I'll leave you with two question:

1. How come Sony hasn't recalled any of the batteries from their own laptops? If they have, I haven't read about them.
2. How come Panasonic has recalled some of their batteries? Panasonic makes their own cells and certainly competes with Sony on every level of their business. Did Panasonic use Sony cells... did Sony make cells that Panasonic rebranded for themselves (which would make me look again at the panasonic cells I've found in the W7)... or what's really going on?

Have a great weekend.

 

Justin, I really want to take you up on that offer, just cause its so funny that jsis thinks that Asus needs a recall because his battery isn't as good as he wants. I really wish people would listen to what you say more often, as suprising as it may be to those who don't, it is good information.

 

a ditto on that.

 

I was doubting that simply because ProPortable was saying on several threads that some ASUS notebooks (older, newer, irrelevant) have Sony batteries. I do not doubt that the asus techsupport guy was telling the truth about the V6J.

I also did not say that he was lying about ASUS using only Samsung batteries. He said "We are not us ing Sony cells", which is present continuous tense, so if they're not using Sony any longer he was correct.

It was just my impression that he was trying to give the impression that Asus has never used Sony's. I might have been wrong.

 

as far as i know, Sony's cells are mainly made in Japan. The battery on my W3J says "Made in Taiwan". Therefore I would say that the W3J cells are not Sony. My 2 cents.

 

Caleb - This is for jsis to take me up on and no one else... unless of course he doesn't want to and maybe I'll just bust open a new one and see what's inside.... I'm just under the impression that his battery sucks and I think it may have already been replaced and it's dead again....... the problem he's having isn't normal to the V6j or any other model and it's certainly not showing any signs of the problem that caused those widespread recalls of Sony cells.

kstaks - In terms of your battery, the overall battery is made in Taiwan by Asus... that's the cover and the assembly of the cells... so, I'd just tell you that the sticker you're reading doesn't mean anything.

 

I know Justin, I was joking when I said that. Besides, there is no way I could be without a battery for a while, not with classes and traveling this weekend. But, I was doing some more research on the battery trouble with the V6j, but I will post there later.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/17/sony-recalls-300-000-of-its-own-batteries-delays-and-financial/


I'm not foolish enough like you to open my batteries, thanks very much. I'm not going to risk injuring myself or voiding my warranty... and I have only 1 laptop whereas you have too many, you can do whatever you want to them. FYI, my new V6Va battery work fine (if you are constantly watching the 20page or so thread started a while ago). You should ask or inquire a research by ASUS instead of finding what cells are in your own batteries.

Based on my experience, ASUS has been fairly inconsistent in their support and engineering/QA, so I'm not suprised if they are going to have a recall sooner or later.

 

IF you read that thread, you will know that a batteyr recall isn't going to fix the trouble you are having. There is a problem with the way that the batterys in the V6j are read, thats why you want a battery recall. Batterys should be recalled because they are exploding. Nice try.

 

Ok, that's great about Sony... I was actually asking a question and thank you for giving me that link. However, question or not, that's all it was... I was curious. It still does nothing for the real question at hand.

You're right... I don't read that 20 page thread you started on your battery problems because I'd rather burn myself over and over with a hot poker instead of reading you complain over and over about your battery... which is mainly what they thread was for at least 3-4 of those pages.

So you're not "foolish" enough to open up your battery.... because of voiding your warranty and injuring yourself? Are you thinking you might pull muscle or something? It doesn't explode. The plastic covers are just to match the chassis and they come apart.... they're just not meant to.

Now my offer to you was a new battery to replace what you have.... so your bs about the warranty is just that...... Now on injuring yourself... I didn't think of that, so don't think it was some plot to get you to hurt yourself.... I don't care that much, but I certainly wouldn't wish pain on my worst enemy (ok, just a little).

Asus doesn't need to do anything. I don't need to have them do a background check on all of their batteries. We're talking about a grass roots effort to find out if Asus is hiding anything from you. I was with you and was willing to them, but apparently you're chicken **** and with that you should just shut up about a battery recall until you have more proof than we did when we went into Iraq..... I wanted to help you, even if that meant me giving you a battery out which would be paid for out of my own pocket. Sometimes people need to do things for themselves or they'll never appreciate it and that's what I was trying to help you do. If you found Sony cells in that battery, not only would have given you a new battery, but you'd be the person who could tell everyone about it and perhaps even have something to sue Asus over.... I think your excuses don't outweight that possible outcome.....

 

U.S. law and I disagree with you completely.

 

I would just like to add that I own a W3V pre-2006 that has yet to explode. I have my fingers crossed. If it does explode though, I will be suing, because let's face it - work blows. Not sure whether I want it to or not at this point..

 

Are you a lawyer, if not I would not say anything about laws....

Edit: And I thought it could be misinterpreted.
So let me extend it: If you are not lawyer (as I'm not) you probably know so much about law as lawyer would know about computers (and as if there are some exceptions I used form: "I would not say ...", as in If I were you). So commenting that something is U.S. law....
For example (although from Poland): My uncle was doing some services for some company, but they didn't pay him any money. So he sued them, but his advice from lawyers was that it such a easy job, that he can easily defend himself. And guess what he lose...

So commenting this post as juvenile is taking on my pride, so I had to edit it.

 

I'm going to stop posting battery recall related things in this thread as I think reviving my own is actually going to be better for the forum. Here's the link:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=78620&page=3&highlight=recall

 

No, I'm not currently a lawyer, but I am in law school.

 

Also, American style law is very different from European style.

Which is made very clear by the fact that an American lawyer would never recommend that your uncle go it alone without a lawyer, unless there was no money to be made =P

But again very different systems.

 

Kinda off-topic but as proportables stopped posting here...

Yeah I know that this laws are different, but it is clearly saying that the laws (in general) are not clear, if they were there would be no need for the lawyers

BTW are you going to be a civil attorney or the one for the not so civil cases

 

i think YOU need a battery recall