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Apple has established a voluntary replacement program for 15-inch MacBook Pro computers sold between September 2015 and February 2017. A problem in the battery of the devices increases the risk of fire.

“Because customer safety is a key priority, Apple is asking consumers to stop using affected 15-inch MacBook Pro devices,” said the company. This specifically concerns the 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina, which was launched in mid-2015, writes Silicon Angle. A limited number of laptops of this type can overheat the battery and cause a fire hazard. The problem does not occur with other 15 inch MacBook Pro laptops or other Mac laptops.

Exactly how many laptops were affected by the problem is not clear. However, a May video circulates on Twitter in which a MacBook Pro – which was supposed to be a mid-2015 model – explodes under normal use. Also in February there was mention of a MacBook Pro that broke down due to an exploding battery. The model was also specifically mentioned.

Apple offers battery replacement free of charge to affected users. The replacement has no further effect on the warranty of the device. Users can have the battery replaced at Apple Stores or at authorized parties. The laptop can also be sent to have the battery replaced. This does mean, however, that the laptop has to be handed in for some time. Replacing the battery can take one to two weeks, because the device has to be sent to an Apple Repair Center.

Not uncommon

Problems with batteries in consumer appliances are more common. Most known are the problems with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. The battery exploded with several Note 7 devices.

However, such situations are quite rare. The standard batteries in such devices are lithium-ion batteries, which have a probability of less than one in a million to fail. So it seems that this is a manufacturing defect, which was also the case with Samsung’s problems with the batteries.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.