BEIJING, April 22 -- Lenovo, China's leading personal computer maker, began recalling a large amount of defective batteries for its ThinkPad laptops in China on Tuesday, the country's top quality watchdog said Wednesday.

The recall involves 89,653 lithium ion batteries in more than 30 models under the Edge, T, S, W and L series manufactured between October 2010 and June 2012, 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 current recall followed last year's recall of more than 117,000 batteries in some ThinkPad laptops due to the same problem.

Lenovo makes personal computers, and also smart phones, tablets, televisions and servers. It acquired the personal computer division of IBM in 2005.