SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20130908-18F60-2147452208. Severity: Injury, No First Aid or Medical Attention Received. Product: Sony Vaio VPCF115FM (Sony Vaio vpcf115fm Black Laptop). Incident: I bought the Sony Vaio VPCF115FM from Best Buy in July of 2009. The very first day I had the Vaio, I experienced overheating problems. After doing some research, �these notebook computers may overheat due to a potential malfunction of the internal temperature management system, resulting in deformation of the product's keyboard or external casing, and a potential burn hazard to consumers.� The information about the recall is found on the Sony website at: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/news-item.pl?template_id=1&news_id=401. According to the recall page: "If you have one of the VPCF11 or VPCCW2 series models, Sony recommends that you download and install a firmware update specifically designed to prevent the potential overheating symptom." After downloading the firmware update and install, the only thing that I noticed that was different was that the fans would run at full speed all the time. Whether I was browsing the web or watching a movie, the noisy fan would be running at 100%. This update did not fix my problem. I was still getting temperature readings above 100 degrees Celsius (the temperature at which water boils). This laptop gets so hot, that it will cause a burn if set on your lap. This is not only a safety hazard but a fire hazard. Whenever my Vaio reaches processor temperatures of over 100 degrees Celsius, it shuts off due to overheating. I currently own a business repairing computers, networking businesses, building custom PC's, and doing web design. I have a bachelors degree in computer science and minored in information systems. Basically, I have a well rou