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.

The laptops affected are the highly popular Vaio TZ series which includes the model numbers TZ100, TZ200, TZ300 and TZ2000. The fault is reported to be a problem with the wiring close to the laptops hinge, which could overheat or short circuit in some circumstances. Although not all of the Vaio TZ branded laptops are affected, Sony urges users of the laptops to contact the company to see if their model is part of the recall.

Last year Sony had to recall over 27,000 laptop batteries as another fault was discovered in the manufacturing process. This affected not only Sony, but Dell, Toshiba and Hewlett-Packard that also used the battery packs.