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Sony Recalls 18,000 VAIO Laptops

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the a-little-jolt-is-good-for-you dept.

STFS writes "Reuters has a story about Sony having to recall 18 thousand VAIO laptops because apparently there is some risk of users receiving a small electric shock "if you have connected your PC (laptop) to external power, you have disabled your phone line, (while) simultaneously being connected to a grounded peripheral, and you are touching a metal part of the PC, and your phone rings"!" I can't begin to count the number of times that happens ;)

5 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. OK, I'll bite by PhysicsGenius · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The article doesn't say anyone was electrocuted. It was a "small electric shock". I think everyone is overreacting on this one. I get shocks bigger than this just walking across the carpet in the winter.

    This is just like that whiny guy that was apparently expecting his McDonald's coffee to be ice cold.

    1. Re:OK, I'll bite by JesterXXV · · Score: 5, Interesting

      True, no one was electrocuted, but a phone ring is generated by a 90 VAC charge down the phone line, IIRC (probably because of the older phones which needed that kind of voltage to operate the mechanical bell). I've actually been shocked by the ring charge before, when I was fooling around with an old desktop phone with the cover off, dialing my own phone number to cause it to ring while holding down the hookswitch standing on my concrete basement floor in bare feet. Yes, I'm an idiot, but while I wasn't anything more than a little soiled in the pants, I could see how this could potentially be a HUGE problem if someone with a pacemaker or just a weak heart were to find themselves in this quasi-unlikely situation with their VAIO.

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    2. Re:OK, I'll bite by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Interesting
      FYI:

      A large electric shock across my hand (ie both contacts on my hand) may cause temporary numbness and some pain, but quite probably no lasting damage.

      A small electric shock, passing from my hand to my feet, can kill me if the current passes through the heart.

      It doesn't really matter how big it is. It's how you use it.

      (Now let's see if I'm allowed to post this or if I'll get yet another of those "You've already moderated this discussion" errors I can't get past, despite the fact I haven't even been given mod points in the last year.)

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  2. Ring voltage by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Ring is 88V, 20Hz.

    There's also a 400V (!) insulation test signal that is sometimes applied in the early morning hours (peak water-accumulation time), but it's current-limited to a very low current and only lasts for a few milliseconds. That, incidentally, is what causes "bell tap", where, in the early morning hours, some cheapie phones emit a brief bell signal. Anything that attaches to a phone line must tolerate that 400V spike.

  3. disabled your phone line? by DoorFrame · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you've disabled your phone line, why would an incoming call cause a shock? Shouldn't that be the point of disabling it? I'm confused.

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