Japan's Sony Corp has announced that it will recall around 438,000 Vaio portable computers affected by a potential hazard that is likely to cause them to overheat or even burn the user. This is one of the biggest computer recall since 2006, the earlier one being by Dell Inc, when it recalled 4.1 million notebook computer batter

According to a Sony spokesman, there are currently around 72,800 computers in the United States alone awaiting recall. The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission said that Sony has received 15 reports of overheating and one of a consumer suffering minor burns.

The laptops in question are the Sony VGN-TZ100, VGN-TZ200, VGN-TZ300 and VGN-TZ2000 series, and the problem is related to "irregularly positioned wires near the computer's hinge and/or dislodged screw inside the hinge". This is stated to be a cause of short circuit and overheat.

Sony says, "This poses a burn hazard to consumers. Sony has initiated a voluntary program to perform a free inspection and, if necessary, a repair to ensure these units meet our high quality standards."
If you have been following the news, you may recall that in recent years, Sony has had to recall of laptop computer batteries due to overheating and catching fire.

The year 2006 saw Dell, Apple Inc, Lenovo Group Ltd, Toshiba Corp and some other PC makers recall more than 8 million Sony batteries. Sony has declined to comment on the potential cost that it will incur due to the recall.