The US Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with Sony Electronics Inc. of San Diego, California; has recalled 233,000 Sony VAIO laptop computers due to the possibility of burn hazards. The computers may overheat and reports of units overheating resulting in deformed keyboards and casings prompted the recall. The overheating problem is caused by a malfunction of the computer’s internal temperature management system. These computers were sold from January 2010 to April 2010 at places such as: Best Buy, Sony Style, Costco, Frys, and Amazon.com . They came in many colors and are part of the VPCF11 and VPCCW2 series of notebook computers. Owners can check with Sony to see if their computer is part of the recall at telephone number 866-496-7669. These computers were manufactured in China and the United States, have VAIO clearly marked on the outside panel, and it is illegal to resell the affected units. The US CPSC urges consumers to discontinue using these units and to perform an update on the BIOS firmware to remedy this hazard. Consumers can call Sony or visit a Sony Style retail store for help with installing the update. This firmware update fixes the overheating problem in all of the affected computers. To date, no injuries have been reported. However, both Sony and the US CPSC warm against using these computers until the firmware update has been performed.
