Sony issues recall for Vaio laptops that may catch fire

Third-party batteries built by Panasonic are overheating with three reported cases of "burns to the chassis" prompting the recall by Sony

Sony has warned that the batteries in its Vaio Fit 11A laptop are a fire hazard and is asking owners of the unit to stop using it immediately.

The recall has been posted on the company’s website  after it received three reports in which the internal battery of the Vaio Fit 11A overheated and partially burnt the housing of the unit.

Thankfully for Sony (and its users) the problem is a relatively small one. The Japanese electronics firm only shipped some 26,000 units with 7,158 of these going to Europe.

This compares well with a recall in 2006 that saw Dell and Apple issue warnings for more than 4.1 million laptops that contained Sony-built batteries.

Sony has blamed the issue on a non-removable battery pack built by Panasonic, according to reports from theWall Street Journal .

“The safety of our customers is of the utmost importance, so we are advising those with affected models to switch off the unit and discontinue use,” says the company.  

“We have provided customers with a simple tool to check the serial number to identify whether it is an affected model. “

The Vaio Fit 11A went on sale this ferbuary and can be changed from a laptop to a tablet by folding back the screen over the keyboard. Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai described the decision to recall the product as “agonizing”.