A product recall notice has been issued by the US Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) over a range of HP Pavilion and HP/Compaq Presario and Evo laptops. Seemingly, it has been found that the battery packs can overheat and melt their plastic casings. Some have even caught fire.
According to the CPSC, an "internal short can cause the battery cells to overheat and melt or char the plastic case, posing a burn and fire hazard".
So far there have been 16 reports of batteries overheating, including four in the US, and four reports of "minor property damage" as a result. There have been no reports of any injuries.
The packs in question were manufactured between March 2004 and September 2004, and all have bar code labels starting with GC, IA, L0 or L1.