China's largest personal computer maker, Lenovo, is recalling a large number of defective batteries in China in some of its ThinkPad laptops, the country's top quality watchdog said on Thursday.

The recall involves 117,732 lithium ion batteries in the Edge11, Edge13, T410, X100e, X201 and X201s series manufactured between October 2010 and April 2011, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement.

The batteries in those laptops may malfunction and become too hot in some cases, posing safety hazards for users, the statement said.

Lenovo will replace the batteries free of charge for affected users to eliminate the hazard.

The company makes personal computers, and also smartphones, tablets, televisions and servers. Lenovo acquired the personal computer division of IBM in 2005.