Acer Aspire Notebook Recall: Risk of Overheating and Burns

A defective microphone wire in some Acer Aspire-series notebooks could short circuit and overheat, resulting in a recall for about 22,000 computers.

The Acer laptop recall was announced on Thursday by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), indicating that Acer has received at least three different reports of computers that short-circuited and got hot enough to cause melting of the external casing. Although no injuries have been reported in connection to the overheating laptop computers, this could potentially cause users to suffer burns or result in property damage.

According to the CPSC recall announcement, the computers have a defective internal microphone wire located under the palm rest that can short circuit and overheat.

Several notebook computer recalls have been issued in recent years due to problems with overheating, starting with a 2006 Dell battery recall involving more than 4 million lithium-ion batteries that were found to overheat and potentially catch fire.

In September 2008, Sony recalled more than 430,000 VAIO-TZ series laptops due to wires that were misplaced internally that could overheat. In addition, Sony issued a laptop battery recall for about 35,000 lithium-ion batteries used in Toshiba, Dell, and Hewlet-Packard (HP) notebook computers in October 2008, after the company received at least 17 reports of computers bursting into flames due to the defective batteries.

In May 2009, an HP battery recall was issued for about 70,000 lithium-ion batteries after two reports of laptops erupting in flame. The recalled HP notebook batteries were used in certain HP and Compaq laptops.

The latest recall of Acer Aspire notebooks affects the Acer AS3410, AS3410T, AS3810T, AS3810TG, AS3810TZ and AS3810TZG models with 13.3-inch monitors. Not all of the computers in those series are affected by the recall, and anyone with one of those models should contact Acer to determine whether their notebook is affected by the recall and to receive a free repair.

The notebooks were sold through Radio Shack, ABS Computer Technologies, Fry’s Electronics, SED/American Express, only through Amazon.com and from a number of other retailers nationwide from June through October 2009 for between $650 an $1,150.

The CPSC recommends that anyone with an affected notebook should stop using the recalled computer immediately.