Laptop manufacturers Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Dell are recalling over 100,000 laptops that have Sony-made batteries in them. This is just the latest setback for Sony, who last month had to recall over 400,000 of its own brand Vaio laptops due to overheating.

The latest recalls include batteries that were manufacturing red between October 2004 and June 2005 over risks of overheating. To date there have been 40 instances of overheating worldwide, with four people suffering minor burns.

Around 74,000 HP laptops are affected, as well as 14,000 Toshiba laptops and a small number of Dell branded devices.

Earlier in the week, Sony released a report that said that they had had a 71% fall in profits for Q3 of this year. It blamed the uncertain global economy and the high value of the yen.