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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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Sony: 535,000 laptops recalled because of risk of overheating

By | June 30, 2010, 6:48am PDT

Summary: Sony is pointing the finger at over half a million notebooks, claiming that a bug puts them at risk of overheating.

UPDATE: This is now a recall.

Sony is pointing the finger at over half a million notebooks, claiming that a bug puts them at risk of overheating.

The problem affects some 535,000 Vaio F and C series notebooks that have been sold since January. On top of this, Sony is saying that an additional 111,000 units are susceptible to other issues. It is believed that a miscalibrated temperature sensor is to blame for the overheating.

Sony issuing a BIOS update to fix these problems, but customers do have the option of returning the notebook to Sony to carry out the work.

Japanese models affected are:
VPCF119FJ/BI
VPCF118FJ/W
VPCF117FJ/W
VPCCW29FJ/W
VPCCW28FJ/P
VPCCW28FJ/R
VPCCW28FJ/W
VPCF11AFJ
VPCF11AGJ
VPCF11AHJ
VPCF11ZHJ
VPCCW2AFJ
VPCCW2AHJ.

Affected models sold outside Japan are:
VPCCW25FG/B
VPCCW25FG/P
VPCCW25FG/W

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Topics

Sony Corp., Laptop Computer, Notebooks, Strategy, Security, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Management, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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Never in doubt
MSFTWorshipper 9th Jul 2010
Just buy Macbooks and be hassle free forever.
View in thread
0 Votes
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RE: Sony: 535,000 laptops at risk of overheating
ssegura@... 30th Jun 2010
It doesn't surprise me, because there PS3 does too and they won't own up to that either.
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They did
D2 Ultima 30th Jun 2010
@ssegura@...
Their PS3 overheated with an average of a 1-in-20 chance of failure. The Xbox failed with a 3-in-4 chance of Red Ring of Death. The PS3's failures were sort of engulfed XD
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The Xbox 360 also had a 100% chance of free repair
evilkillerwhale@... 30th Jun 2010
@D2 Ultima

The Sony's are $100
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RE: Sony: 535,000 laptops at risk of overheating
herveXXX 30th Jun 2010
Won't you do something about these ugly ads instead of real comments in your site? I get tired of these new way of spamming.
Anyway. I use some sony laptops and none of these are in the list.
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RE: Sony: 535,000 laptops at risk of overheating
phatkat 30th Jun 2010
It appears that all companies are dumping quality now in the quest of "profits" and all of us are suffer for this.
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Because users are DEMANDING cheap!
kaninelupus 1st Jul 2010
@phatkat
Even on this site, readers are putting out statements the likes of "if MS can't give me a Windows update for $50, I'm not interested", or if such-and-such a device is more than...."

Computerland is becoming a culture of cheap, because so many people are demanding it... and this is the inevitable result! Sure; PC/IT prices should come down over time, as once-premium components become more mainstream; as core components become mature. But if consumers continue to demand unrealistic pricing structures, then you end up - quite literally - getting what you paid for!

That being said, if a company the likes of Dell take the course of deliberately deceiving customers to cover-up a product defect, then they do deserve to pay the price... a BIG price.
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RE: Sony: 535,000 laptops at risk of overheating
freaknout 30th Jun 2010
I think Sony has real issues in regard to undersized cooling engineering and or parts suppliers. Ive had 2 PS3's and a Bookshelf Stereo systems that all had over heating problems and now this. I really think they are under engineering their air flows as soon as something gets dusty all bets are off with these guys.
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This isn't a hardware issue.
Lester Young 30th Jun 2010
@freaknout It's a BIOS issue. Sony actually has one of the better reliability track records for laptops. I don't think their laptops can be judged according to the issues with PS3s.
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Wow...
jasonp@... 30th Jun 2010
hand bags as one word gets banned?
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RE: Sony: 535,000 laptops at risk of overheating
Playdrv4me 30th Jun 2010
Can't be near as bad as HP...
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Who...
evilkillerwhale@... 30th Jun 2010
@Playdrv4me

HP only had to recall laptops with SONY BATTERIES in them...
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Sony's turn
maharshik@... Updated - 30th Jun 2010
Now is it Sony's turn after Toyota and Honda ?
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RE: Sony: 535,000 laptops at risk of overheating
SirCatlord 30th Jun 2010
Sony has always a hit and miss track record. Thier VAIO line of products have aquired a long history of either breakdowns, design flaws or failures. Look up model GRV-670. A great laptop....when it works. Otherwise, it has a 'one ram slot of death' or on board video going out.
I already sent in mine to be repaired once, and bought another one from e-bay, to be used as donor parts.
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about time
coldmm803 30th Jun 2010
I had a vaio laptop a few years ago (bought in '04 and died in '07) that overheated constantly. I couldn't even watch a movie, the cpu temp would hit 70C and start to throttle performance. I had to send it back to them 3 times for various issues.
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RE: Sony: 535,000 laptops at risk of overheating
SMparky Updated - 30th Jun 2010
I think the real issue now days is everything is rushed on the market with not much thought to quality. Short warranties mean companies only try to build things to survive their tiny designed lifespans. Once in a while it catches the company, but usually it's the consumer that gets burned. (perhaps literally in this case)
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RE: Sony: 535,000 laptops at risk of overheating
drswallow2002@... 1st Jul 2010
Sony overheating goes back to the start of the Viao series. 5 years ago. The one we had overheated all the time and Sony denied it was happening. Blamed it on Windows
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RE: Sony: 535,000 laptops at risk of overheating
b.brooker@... Updated - 2nd Jul 2010
I have the same problem with my VGN-A517s I paid nearly 1600 pounds for my kit including a Dock. The battery discharges when it is switched off and in its bag, goes flat in 4 days. When it is connected to the dock, I have have it sitting on a Belkin Cooling unit all the time it is use. If you try to use it as a "Laptop" it scorches your trousers. Contacted them on several ocassions, all I got was "THAT IS NORMAL" I too will never buy Sony computers again
0 Votes
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Never in doubt
MSFTWorshipper 9th Jul 2010
Just buy Macbooks and be hassle free forever.

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