Fujitsu Ltd., Japan's largest computer manufacturer, said Friday it is recalling all 10 million hard-disk drives it produced between September 2000 and September 2001 because some contain defective parts.
The drives were installed in Fujitsu's desktop computers as well as desktop PCs produced by NEC Corp., IBM Japan Ltd., Hitachi Ltd. and a number of other makers, prompting them to also recall their products, Fujitsu officials said.
Compaq Computer K.K. will also start recalling computers equipped with the hard-disk drives, they said.
The drives cost between 7,000 yen and 8,000 yen each, and Fujitsu expects the cost of replacing them to be several billion yen, the officials said.
If more replacements are required, the cost could exceed 10 billion yen, which would affect the company's earnings.
Fujitsu said the defective disk drives use integrated circuits, procured from foreign suppliers, in which defects were found at between two and three times the standard ratio. The defective drives account for 2 percent to 3 percent of the 10 million drives, it said.
Computers equipped with the defective drives may malfunction if operated for a long time in high temperatures and in high humidity, the company said.
Fujitsu started recalling some of its FMV-series desktop machines on July 24.
NEC has started recalling about 180,000 computers, including the Valuestar series. IBM Japan is recalling some of its four series of desktop machines. Hitachi Ltd. is recalling some computers sold to corporate users.