Toshiba Recall Targets Sony Batteries

Toshiba Corp. is recalling worldwide 340,000 batteries made by Sony Corp. for its notebook computers, the latest in a series of embarrassing battery problems for Sony.

The latest problem in the batteries causes them to sometimes stop recharging or run out of power, but no injuries or other accidents have been reported, Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Omori said Tuesday.

Omori declined to give the number of reported problems.

The defect is not directly related to the problem behind last month’s recall of Sony batteries by Dell Inc. and Apple Computer Inc., both citing concerns that the batteries could overheat and catch fire.

Dell asked customers to return 4.1 million faulty laptop batteries, while Apple recalled 1.8 million laptop batteries worldwide.

In both those cases, the troubled lithium-ion batteries were made by Sony Energy Devices Corp., a Japan-based subsidiary of Sony.

Tuesday’s recall affects 100,000 laptop batteries in the United States, 45,000 in Japan and the rest in other parts of the world, Omori said.