Toshiba has been forced to issue yet another battery recall due to safety fears, its fourth in barely a year.

The recall, issued through the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, recalls some of Toshiba's Satellite A100, Satellite A105 and Tecra A7 ranges that are powered by batteries manufactured by Sony. Some 1,400 laptops are thought to be affected.

"Over a relatively short period, certain incidents occurred where certain battery packs installed in Toshiba portable computers caught fire," said the company in a statement.

"Based on its investigation, Sony Corporation, supplier of the subject batteries, concluded that certain battery cells manufactured in a specific manufacturing lot could be affected by a certain issue that could potentially lead to a safety issue."

It's been a bad year for Toshiba and other laptop manufacturers that use batteries manufactured by Sony.

In September last year it was forced to recall 340,000 faulty batteries after two laptops caught fire during operation. Last month another 10,000 batteries were recalled.

The battery recalls from major manufacturers have hit Sony hard. The company admitted losing over $340 million over the battery recalls.