Sony: 535,000 Vaio PCs may have overheating glitch

Japan's Sony said on Wednesday that about 535,000 units of its "Vaio" brand personal computers globally may be in danger of overheating and that it has provided software on its website to eliminate the problem.

Sony said in a statement that there have been 39 overheating cases in total, all reported outside Japan. Some of these have resulted in damage to computer bodies, but no burn injuries have been reported.

Separately, the electronics manufacturer and media company announced a voluntary US recall of 233,000 notebook computers with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Wednesday, warning that overheating posed a "burn hazard" to the consumer.

The BBC reports the problem may affect 260,000 laptops in the US, 103,000 in Europe, 120,000 in South East Asia and 52,000 in Japan.

Some of Sony's F and C series Vaio PCs made in January this year and some custom-made models from the same series have been affected, the company said. Sony has claimed their actions are "not a recall" and confirmed that the problem can be rectified with a software patch.

A Sony spokeswoman said the company has not estimated possible costs stemming from the problem.