The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and three notebook producers that use Sony-manufactured batteries recalled 35,000 notebook batteries, 100,000 worldwide. The recall affects notebooks manufactured by producers such as Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Dell in the products sold between November 2004 and June 2006.

The problem with the lithium-ion batteries is that they tend to overheat and then catch fire and burn users. Sony decided to recall the batteries after receiving several reports about the hazardous risks the batteries pose to users.

Sony made a similar recall in 2007. The move involved recalling more than 10 million batteries and cost the company about $429 million.

Sony recalled 32,000 batteries sold by Hewlett-Packard, while the notebook models affected by the measure include the HP Pavilion, the dv1000, dv8000 and zd8000; the Compaq Presario, models v2000 and v2400; and HP Compaq notebooks including thenc6110, nc6120, nc6140, nc6220, nc6230, nx4800, nx4820, nx6110, nx6120, and nx9600.

If you want to know whether your HP notebook is included in the battery recall, you can visit HP's battery-replacement Web site or call (800) 889-2031.

As for Toshiba, the models affected by the recall include the Satellite, models A70/A75, P30/P5, M30X/M35X, and M50/M55; as well as the Tecra, including the A3, A5, and S2. If you are a Toshiba notebook owner enter the company’s battery replacement site or call (800) 457-7777.

The affected Dell laptops include the Latitude 110L and the Inspiron 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150, and 5160. As above, we inform you that you can access Dell’s battery-recall site or call (866) 342-0011.