Lenovo confirms flaming ThinkPad used Sony battery

Lenovo's investigation into an incident involving one of its ThinkPad T43 laptops and a flaming battery has confirmed that Sony's batteries were used by the system, a company representative said.

Sony's batteries were to blame for several incidents involving Dell and Apple laptops that led to battery recalls, but this particular incident at Los Angeles International Airport is the first time Lenovo has observed an incident involving one of its laptops and the faulty Sony batteries, the representative said. In August, Dell and Apple were forced to recall millions of laptop batteries that could short circuit and cause a fire because of faulty battery cells.

Lithium-ion batteries have always had a bit of a checkered history, and no PC maker has been immune to problems with batteries. Lots of PC companies also use Sony's battery technology in at least a portion of their notebooks. But when Dell and Apple announced their recalls, Lenovo said that extensive testing had confirmed that Lenovo's notebook technology was not prone to the same types of problems. Lenovo's notebooks use a different charging voltage than others, and packaging of its batteries is unique, the company said in August.

Lenovo and Sony are continuing to test the heavily damaged ThinkPad T43 in an attempt to learn exactly what caused the problem, the representative said.