A spokeswoman for Big Blue locally said the company was working with the NSW Department of Fair Trading, which was in turn liaising with other state and federal bodies, to conduct the recall. IBM is recalling 117,000 of the monitors worldwide, including 56,000 in the United States.
The recall campaign covers G51 and G51t models, made for IBM by a Taiwan-based manufacturer between June 1997 and September 1997. No injuries have been reported to date, but the component--a coil inside the monitor's horizontal deflection circuit, a larger component located on the monitor's circuit board--has failed in some units, causing them to emit smoke. One monitor was involved in a fire when a napkin it was resting on burned, an IBM representative said.
The IBM Australia spokeswoman said the company would send a letter to retailers and distributors within the next week and place an advertisement in newspapers within the next several days. She said the monitors were typically sold to small businesses and consumers rather than large corporate clients.
IBM's United States office said the company would inspect and repair, if necessary, all of the recalled monitors at no charge to customers. It will also cover shipping, the representative said.
The G51 and G51t model numbers involved in the recall include 6541-02N, 6541-02E, 6541-02S, 6541-Q0N, 6541-Q0E, and 6541-Q0S, IBM said. Model numbers and manufacturing dates are printed on a label on the back of the displays.
Product recalls happen occasionally in the computer industry, with manufacturers often voluntarily recalling and repairing their affected models in concert with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. IBM is working with the commission on the monitor recall in the US.
One of IBM's last recalls involved power supplies for some ThinkPad notebook computer models, which were recalled in 2000.
IBM, which sells several million monitors each year, sold about 585,000 total units of the G51 and G51t displays. While the G51 is a standard 15-inch CRT monitor, the G51t features a touch screen display.
