Earlier this month, HP revealed that a good number of batteries they had sold across several laptop models were defective. The situation resulted in a recall of 70,000 batteries, with HP issuing replacements for anyone who was affected. It appears that the scope of the problem was a bit larger than initially estimated, though, as now a further 15,000 batteries are up for recall following further inspection.
These batteries were only distributed in China, whereas the previous batch was distributed in the U.S. The situation echoes the battery woes that many manufacturers dealt with a few years ago, primarily Sony, but is nowhere near the same in size. Even with advancements in battery technology, will portable power always carry that chance of a defective batch resulting in customers' laptops catching fire? Personally, I'm surprised we see it as little as we do.