Sony on Friday warned users of select models about battery overheating that could lead to chassis burns.
"Sony has identified that the non-removable battery packs provided by a third party supplier, included in (and limited to) VAIO Fit 11A released in February 2014 with below listed model names could potentially malfunction and cause overheating, resulting in partial burns to the chassis of the PC," the company said in a statement, asking users to stop using their devices and approach Sony to find out if their batteries are defective.
The company has provided a tool for users to enter their laptop serial numbers to find out if their model has been affected by the defect. Sony in 2010 recalled 535,000 VIAO laptops when it detected overheating problems owing to a defect in temperature control mechanisms in the laptops.
Wall Street Journal said that 25,905 VAIO Fit 11A units were sold by Sony since the product's launch in February. "Seven thousand were sold in Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan and China. About 3,600 were sold in Japan, 2,000 in China, 7,000 in Europe, 5,600 in Latin America, and 500 in the U.S," WSJ said.
Three incidents of partial burning due to battery overheating have come to Sony's notice ever the VAIO Fit was released in February.
According to The Independent, a Sony spokesperson stated that the company issued the warning following user concerns. It also said Sony would respond promptly to queries made regarding defective batteries. Panasonic was the one that manufactured the faulty batteries.
According to WSJ, Sony is developing plans to repair or replace the batteries and information will be available on its website in two weeks.
A Panasonic spokesperson confirmed to WSJ that it had indeed supplied the batteries to Sony, but declined to reveal which other companies had received such batteries. The representative also said that Panasonic had not heard of any problems from other laptop sellers and the batteries supplied are customized according to client specification.
