Sony announced plans to recall around 535,000 of its Vaio laptops that could overheat due to a temperature-control problem leading to skin burn.
The Japanese electronics company has been involved in several recalls over the past 10 years, but this one may not be as significant as previous recalls.
The faulty batteries were used in Sony's C-Series and F-Series Vaio lines starting in January 2010, with the VPCF11 or VPCCW2 models listed specifically. Around 52,000 units were sold in Japan, with 103,000 in Europe, 120,000 in Asia and 259,000 units sold on the U.S. market. At least 39 reported cases of overheating and other heat-related problems have been issued outside of Japan, the company confirmed.
"In rare instances, these notebook computers may overheat due to a potential malfunction of the internal temperature management system, resulting in deformation of the product's keyboard or external casing, and a potential burn hazard to consumers," Sony said on a recently published support site.
A Wall Street Journal report indicates the battery issue can be resolved by downloading a Vaio software update. For customers who still want a new battery, Sony is offering to pick up and replace affected notebook batteries.
Sony and other companies have had issues with faulty notebook batteries -- mainly Chinese-made models, which has earned the company heavy criticism. In a 2006 battery recall, Sony recalled battery units that could overheat and explode -- and caused a recall with HP, Dell, Apple, and other companies that used Sony batteries. Two years ago, Sony recalled 400,000 Vaio batteries related to overheating and possible explosions. HP had its own recent notebook battery recall extension, with more than 100,000 battery units recalled.
I think this is a problem that shouldn't be happening as much as it has in the past, but I think it's good that Sony is recalling the batteries as a proactive measure, before anyone gets injured.
