Three separate incidents of batteries overheating pushed Sony to advise customers to stop using the Sony Vaio Fit 11A laptop. The incidents were recorded in China on April 8, Hong Kong on March 30 and Japan on March 19.
"It has come to our attention that some of the internal, nonremovable battery packs provided to us by a third-party supplier and included in VAIO Fit 11A released in February 2014 have the potential to overheat, resulting in partial burns to the housing of the PC," the company said in a statement.
The Fit 11A laptop model can be adjusted to two: one, as a traditional laptop, and the other, as a tablet computer.
As a result, Sony also stopped the sale of the hybrid laptops beginning April 1. It also advised current owners of said laptop models to discontinue use immediately, turn them off and unplug them.
Panasonic made the said lithium-ion batteries in about 26,000 of the Vaio PC units that were sold by Sony, a Japanese entertainment and electronics company. Of these, close to 7,000 units went to the Asia-Pacific region other than China and Japan. Approximately 3,600 units went to Japan and 2,000 went to China. Other distribution was 7,000 units in Europe, 5,600 units in Latin America and 500 units in the United States.
Sony said it has been working on identifying the personal computers by their serial numbers. It also plans a customer program to fix the matter, whether to replace or repair the computers affected at no cost. A refund of price paid for the computers affected has also been considered.
"We expect to post a program announcement with details within two weeks. In the meantime, as your safety is our primary concern, we ask again that you please refrain from using the below-listed models...," Sony said.
The hybrid laptop is the last Vaio system to be released by the company, since it is about to sell the Vaio arm and the personal computer business to Japan Industrial Partners. The sale plan was revealed in February, and is part of a strategy to manage the company's most troubled electronic divisions -- the televisions division and the personal computers division. The televisions division will be made into a separate subsidiary.
Based on research, this is not the first case of Sony items with batteries overheating. Computer makers Apple and Dell recalled millions of laptops with batteries made by Sony, after said companies identified the batteries were prone to catching fire and overheating.
