Home entertainment giant Sony has announced that it may be recalling up to 1.6 million Bravia High Defintion Televisions due to a manufacturing fault that causes internal burning and components melting.
A company official for Sony released a statement today to address the issue, which has so far been reported to have occurred 11 times so far in Japan.
Despite all reports of the problem coming from Japan so far, Sony says the fault lies with a large batch of Bravia TVs that have been sold in Europe and America since 2008.
Sony has also confirmed that nothing other than their TV sets have been damaged and nobody has been injured due to the fault.
The company has announced that it will offer free checks for customers concerned by the problem. All you’ll need to do is contact Sony support and request and an engineer to come to your home and carry out a check.
Sony says that only 8 models of Bravia TV could be affected by this problem, and they are:
- KDL-40D3400
- KDL-40D3500
- KDL-40D3550
- KDL-40D3660
- KDL-40V3000
- KDL-40W3000
- KDL-40X3000
- KDL-40X3500
You can check the model number of your TV by looking on the right hand side or on the back for a white label. This will show your model number; if you’ve got one of the models listed above then we suggest you give Sony a call, just in case.
All televisions that could be affected were manufactured during 2007 and 2008, and were primarily sold in Europe and America, though some sets were sold in Japan and across the world.
The fault seems to relate to an overheating issue which has caused certain electronic components inside Bravia sets to melt, and in some serious cases there has been smoke coming out of televisions and a strong burning smell.
With the televisions being made several years ago, we would imagine that most of them are by now outside of the standard 1 year warranty period. Sony will be issuing a warning on its website and emailing customers who have registered their Bravia TV with the company. If your product is outside of the warranty period but has suffered from this problem, make sure you get in touch ASAP – Sony should be honouring the warranty and giving customers a resolution.
It’s not been a good start to the week for Sony, who earlier today reported that over 90,000 Playstation Network and Sony Online Entertainment accounts had been accessed illegally.
UPDATE: Sony is now carrying out safety checks on all of the affected model numbers above. To check if you have one of the affected devices, turn your TV on and follow the steps below.
- Press Menu Button on TV remote
- Scroll down to Settings Menu using Down Arrow key
- Scroll Right using Right Arrow key
- Scroll Down to ‘Product Information’ using Down Arrow key
- Press OK Button
Alternatively, you can check for the model number on a Product Information sticker which will be on the back of the TV. We understand some Bravia TVs are rather large and may be tricky to shift around to get a look at the sticker, so there’s always the menu option above.
If it turns out you have one of the affected model numbers we listed above, give Sony a call on 0844 8466 555 and ask to have a safety inspection.
Have you had a Sony Bravia TV catch on fire, start smoking or smell of burning? Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
Via: Reuters