Ruh roh. We're really, really hoping this isn't just the first of another long string of laptop battery recalls, but the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with a slew of other outfits, has just announced a voluntary recall of around 35,000 Sony laptop batteries. As you'd expect, the Li-ions in question "can overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers," and there have already been 19 reports of overheating including 17 reports of flames / fire and two reports of consumers getting mildly burnt. For the full list (and it's pretty long) of affected laptop models from HP / HP Compaq, Toshiba and Dell, be sure to give the read link some serious attention. Oh, and stop using that battery pronto if yours is one of the afflicted.

Performance Designed Products' Rage Wireless Guitar isn't the most well known Guitar Hero peripheral out there, but that's apt to change in a hurry after this. Said instrument has just been recalled after the company received a single report of a burn after the user self-pwnt him / herself by installing the AA batteries incorrectly. Apparently the circuit board within the axe is "defective" in such a way that it causes cells to leak if they are inserted in an incorrect manner, and thus, it poses a risk of chemical burn to the rocker handling it. Interestingly, consumers who own one are instructed to return the thing to the original place of purchase rather than PDP itself, so we'd recommend wrapping your arm in gauze and printing out the read link to help your case if you've trashed the receipt.

[Via SlipperyBrick]

Let's be honest -- after sinking a few large on a new HDTV, a few hundies on some overpriced cables and even more on HD programming, you weren't about to cough up another month's paycheck for a decent TV stand. For the 48,600 customers out there who purchased one of four different King Pao Enterprise TV Stands (likely sold and distributed by Studio RTA), you now have a product known for tipping over and ruining lives. The E Series, Fierro, Madison DLP and Madison 3000 -- all of which were sold at Best Buy and other big box retailers from May 2004 to August 2008 -- have been deemed unstable and unfit for use in your living room, and it's suggested that you cautiously remove your set and wait for a "repair kit" before it does the removing for you. Godspeed.

Maybe it's a netbook, or maybe it's a ridiculously small notebook. Whatever it is, it's recalled. Raon Digital has issued a recall for its delightfully tiny Everun Note due to a handful of "failure symptoms" detailed on its Korean website. Best we (and Pocketables) can tell, users hearing a high-pitched fan tone, seeing a "Blue Screen phenomenon," or getting torched by an unfathomably hot CPU have a problematic unit, and even if your battery indicator is acting wonky, you too are entitled to a replacement. It's not clear whether affected users will be gifted with a new unit or if they'll receive their old machine back in tip-top condition, but either way, we'd hit the read link and do a little investigating if you own one of these puppies.

[Via Pocketables]

Hey, remember that tiny power adapter you got with your new iPhone? Well guess what? It could get a little dangerous -- so Apple wants you to swap it for a newer, less dangerous one. Apparently, the adapter's metal prongs can break right off, thus creating a "risk of electrical shock" and general mellow-harshing. The company issued a recall today for any of the "Ultracompact USB Power Adapters" which came with iPhone 3Gs in the US, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and "several Latin American countries" (don't worry, they've got a list). Check the read link to figure out if you've got the bad kind of adapter, and for goodness sake, be careful when unplugging that thing!

Here's an interesting, albeit confusing, story: we're getting word that MSI has recalled some Wind laptops running SUSE Linux, since some random oddities had snuck onto the disk image. Namely, illegal screener copies of movies and some family photos. That could explain MSI's temporary delay in shipping this thing out -- a preemptive recall -- but the when, where and what of the recall are a bit hazy, so we recommend rummaging around for the files just in case they're eating up your hard drive room or contain that one flick you were dying to watch with large "Screener copy!" signs flashing past.

[Thanks, Patrick S.]

Look Sony, nobody's rooting for your recovery more than your pals at Engadget. But seriously, two major recalls -- first the $200+ million battery fiasco now 440,000 VAIOs -- in two years? No wonder your stock is at a 3-year low.

Own a Sony VAIO TZ? Well, we hate to be the bearers of bad news but your TZ is likely infected by a possibly dangerous manufacturing boo boo. As such, all VAIO TZ models sold between May 2007 and July 2008 are subject to overheating (unrelated to the Lithium Ion battery, mind you) and eligible for free repair. So far, the announcement only covers Japan, we have yet to see any announcements for the rest of world. However, we do have a reader tip saying that US-based Micro Center stores have pulled all the VAIO TZs from its shelves. We'll update you with US and European support information just as soon as it's available.

Update: And here we have it, the official statement of voluntary recall for the US. 73,000 VAIO TZs -- VAIO VGN-TZ100 series, VGN-TZ200 series, VGN-TZ300 series and VGN-TZ2000 series sold between July 2007 and August 2008 -- are affected after 15 reports of overheating resulting in one consumer who suffered a minor burn. Full notice after the break.

Update 2: UK recalled as well. Apparently, more than 200 laptops globally have overheated resulting in seven people suffering "light burns." The recall amounts to about 440,000 laptops.

[Via Impress, thanks BigDaddyM and Chris W.]

Look, it's pretty clear that the lithium-ion battery in the first generation iPod nano has the potential to burst into flames. Seriously, how many more cases do we have to see? Even after giving Apple a stern talking-to and ferocious wag of the finger back in March, Japan's government is once again investigating possible battery defects that caused a pair of Tokyo nanos to burn: nano model MA099 recently singed a piece of nearby paper while a model MA005 nano burned a traditional tatami mat in January (no injuries were reported).

Presumably Apple is calculating the cost-of-recall at this very moment. In other words, take the number of 1st gen nanos in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, they don't do one.

Update: Japan has issued a warning to iPod nano users saying, "Users need to be careful about overheating of the machines," particularly when charging the players. Japan's government has reported a total of 14 similar incidents to Apple related to models MA004J/A, MA005J/A, MA099J/A and MA107J/A all sold between September '05 and September '06 -- two of which resulted in minor burns. NHK claims that Apple does not plan a recall but is ready to exchange defective parts.

So now that HP's joined Dell in releasing information on which laptops have those defective NVIDIA GPUs, we can sort of piece together which chips are faulty -- and just as had been rumored, it looks like basically every Geforce 8600M and 8400M chip is affected. That's not good news for NVIDIA, which has been saying that only "previous-generation" chips were problematic -- unless the chipmaker is planning on updating the hugely popular 8x00 series sometime, say, now, that's not exactly true, now is it? Other affected chips appear to be in the GeForce Go 7000 and 6000 lines, as well as the Quadro NVS 135M and the Quadro FX 360M, but that's just looking at model numbers, and we can't be exactly sure. We'd say that if you've got a machine with any one of these GPUs, it might be wise to call in and see what your laptop maker is going to do -- and it would be smart for NVIDIA to come right out and say exactly how big and how bad this problem really is.

Read - Dell list of machines and patch
Read - HP list of machines, extended warranty info

Hey, you remember the Neonode N2? The OG full-face touchscreen phone? Well, better cherish those memories, since every N2 is being recalled due to "reception problems." A fix is apparently ready to go, but seeing as we haven't heard a peep from Neonode since it promised us a totally new OS and handsets back at CES, we've got a feeling you might be better off swapping out handsets for a while -- besides, who still uses EDGE?

NVIDIA's stock took a pretty big hit last week when it announced that "significant quantities" of "previous-generation" GPUs and mobile and communications processors were defective and that it would take a $250M charge against earnings to repair and replace the affected chips, but the company didn't say which chips specifically were faulty, nor how many. That might be because the problem is much worse than it even sounds -- according to a report in The Inquirer, every single G84 and G86 GPU in the 8400M and 8600M series of cards is affected. Apparently both chips share an ASIC, and the core design suffers from the same heat-related issues. That certainly implicates a "significant quantity" of chips, all right, but this is just a rumor for now -- one that's probably best handled by NVIDIA stepping up and letting its customers know exactly how big the problem is.

[Thanks, Rich]

If you're the type to watch the late stock tickers, you might have noticed that NVIDIA's stock just took a pretty big hit, down 24 percent to $13.56 -- that's because the company just informed investors that "significant quantities" of previous-generation graphics chips have been failing at "higher than normal rates," and that it's lowering its Q2 estimates due to pricing pressure. NVIDIA will be taking a $150M to $250M charge against earnings next quarter to cover the cost of repairing and replacing the affected chips, but didn't specifically announce what products were defective, just that they include GPUs and "media and communications processors." Laptop makers have apparently already been given an updated GPU driver which kicks in fans sooner to reduce "thermal stress" on the GPU, and NVIDIA says it's talking to its suppliers about being reimbursed for the faulty parts. That's great and all, but we'd really rather know which chips specifically are failing -- if you're serious about playing in the big leagues, you better come clean, guys.

Hey you. Yeah, you. You're about to beam that resume facsimile-style to a prospective employer, aren't you? If said machine is a Hewlett-Packard Fax 1010 or 1010xi, we're recommend firing (ahem) it over through email instead. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with HP, has issued a voluntary recall for the aforementioned fax machines after receiving three reports of "overheating," two of which resulted in "minor property damage." If you just so happen to own one of these machines, and you'd prefer your abode not be burned to the ground anytime soon, we'd suggest following the read link and applying for your rebate. After you unplug the machine and shove it in the freeze, of course.

It's not like LG hasn't had issues with its batteries before, and even after confirming that they were unquestionably safe just last week, the firm has suddenly removed its Z1-AE007 from the market after suspecting that faulty batteries may be included. Reportedly, one of said models "caught fire" in Seoul and presumably startled the graduate student who owned it, but a company spokesperson stopped short of proclaiming that a recall was in order. Furthermore, the individual noted that "the matter should be consulted with the battery maker," essentially shoving every ounce of blame as far as humanly possible away from LG.

[Via FarEastGizmos]