Gateway, the third largest PC vendor in the US, has issued a voluntary recall aof 14,000 batteries used in its notebook. Under certain conditions the batteries can overheat and create fire hazard. Until now Gateway received four reports of overheating, but there were no reported injuries.

According to the company, the affected battery packs were shipped as the primary or spare battery pack for Gateway 400VTX and 450ROG series notebooks sold during a three-month period from May 2003 to August 2003. The battery packs were sold in the United States through Gateway's Professional and Direct channels, including its Gateway Country stores.

Only batteries with model nos. 6500760 and 6500761 need attention and the company will provide free replacements for the same.

Gateway suggested to customers that wish to use their notebooks to remove the battery pack, and powering the system via AC adapter and power cord.

According to media reports the batteries were manufactures by a Taiwanese company, Simplo Technology Co. Ltd.

Last year, Dell, Apple, Toshiba and Lenovo recalled over 8 millions lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Sony, after incidents reported by customers.