Sony Recalls 69,000 Vaio Power Bricks on Shock Hazard

Sony has announced a recall of 69,000 AC adapters that came with Vaio notebooks, in a joint move of the company and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Insulation inside of certain VGP-AC19V17 model adapters may degrade over time, a potential electrical shock hazard, although no injuries have been reported, Sony said, although the company has four reports of the adapters short-circuiting.

The Sony VGP-AC19V17 AC adapter were sold with computers from the company's VGC-LT, VGC-JS240, VGC-JS250, VGC-JS270, and VGC-JS290 series on the market after September 2007, as well as with notebook docking stations VGP-PRBX1 and VGP-PRFE1 sold since September 2005.

Sony is to provide a free replacement for the adapter. Consumers may order the free replacement by either visiting Sony's support site or by calling (877) 361-4481 at any time. Only adapters with certain serial numbers are being recalled; to find out if your adapter is impacted, enter your serial number on Sony's support site.

If you have one of the bad bricks, Sony advises you to turn off your computer, unplug it, and stop using the recalled AC adapter immediately. Sony can be reached toll-free at 877-361-4481, or online at esupport.sony.com/ac19adapter.