Sony Vaio Laptop Recall: Computers Overheating, Melting Cases

More than 200,000 Sony VAIO notebook computers are being recalled due to the risk that they may overheat and potentially burn consumers. 

The Sony VAIO recall was announced on June 30 by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) after Sony received 30 reports of VAIO notebooks overheating. The overheated laptops caused keyboards and computer cases to warp and deform, but there were no injuries reported.

About 233,000 VPCF11 and VPCCW2 Series notebook computers are impacted by the Sony Vaio laptop recall. All of the computers have “VAIO” on the front outside panel and a model number on the bottom of the computer. A full list of model numbers is available in the CPSC recall announcement.

The notebook computers were distributed between January 2010 and April 2010 for between $800 and $1,500 at Best Buy, Costco, Frys, and Sony Style retail stores, as well as online at Amazon.com and Sonystyle.com.

The CPSC recommends that consumers go to http://esupport.sony.com/US/f1cw2update to receive instructions on how to update the computer’s BIOS firmware, which will prevent the computers from overheating.

This is the second major Sony VAIO recall due to overheating. In September 2008, Sony recalled 430,000 VAIO TZ-series notebook computers due to the possibility that they could short-circuit and overheat. That recall came after Sony received reports of at least 15 computers overheating, including one which resulted in a user suffering burns.

Sony has also previously had issues with their batteries in laptop computers, which caused fires in several cases. In 2006, over 8 million Sony batteries were recalled by PC manufacturers including the Lenovo Group, Apple, Toshiba and Dell.