Sony Power Problems Continue: 69,000 AC Adapters Recalled

Sony is recalling 69,000 Vaio AC adapters, almost a year after recalling 100,000 notebook batteries and 13 months after recalling almost a half-million notebooks due to overheating concerns.

Sony claims the AC adapters may short-circuit and pose a potential electrical shock hazard because insulation inside the AC adapter can fail over time. Sony has received four reports of the adapters short-circuiting, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. No incidents have occurred in the U.S. and no injuries have been reported.

The recall applies to adapter model VGP-AC19V17 that was supplied with the following Vaio models after September 2007: VGC-LT, VGC-JS240, VGC-JS250, VGC-JS270 and VGC-JS290. In addition, Sony is recalling adapters for two notebook docking stations sold after September 2005, the VGP-PRBX1 and VGP-PRFE1.

The adapters were sold through retailers and resellers from September 2005 through October 2009 in PCs purchased for between $900 and $3,300 and $250 and $300 for docking stations.

A validation form on Sony's support Web site can help identify if an AC adapter is among those included in the recall, according to the company. Customers with an adapter on the recall list can call Sony at (877) 361-4481.

In October 2008, Sony recalled batteries over concerns about overheating. The recalled batteries were included not just in Vaio notebooks but also notebooks for Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and Dell. In September 2008, Sony also recalled 438,000 Vaio notebooks due to overheating concerns.

The latest round of recalls is still far less than a 2006 Sony recall of 9.6 million batteries, which cost the company roughly $360 million to replace.

It's unclear whether the recalled adapters were sold with the previously recalled notebooks or batteries, which include Sony's Vaio VGN-TZ100 series, VGN-TZ200 series, VGN-TZ300 series and VG-TZ2000 series.