The world's largest manufacturer of personal computers, Dell, is to recall 4.1 million of its notebook computer batteries because of a fire risk.
Most batteries are in computers sold in the US but more than 1 million are thought to be elsewhere.
Dell says it knows of six instances since December when the batteries, made by Sony, overheated or caught fire.
The US body responsible for consumer safety says it is the biggest recall of electrical products in its history.
Alex Gurzen, the vice-president of Dell's product group, told the BBC the firm wanted to "put customer safety first despite this being a small handful of incidents".
He said the 4.1m battery packs being recalled represented "about 15% of the batteries that we sold" over the affected period between mid-2004 and this year.
He denied that the move would affect Dell's earnings.
Dell is offering affected customers free replacements.
A spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Scott Wolfson, said users of affected laptops should only run the machines on a power cord.
Read more here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4793143.stm
Dell recalls 4m laptop batteries
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