Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Sony issued a recall for about 73,000 Sony Vaio TZ-series notebooks (440,000 globally), which include a manufacturing defect that can cause a short circuit and overheating. Buyers these notebooks should stop using the devices “immediately”.

Last year, more than 10 million Sony-manufactured notebook batteries carrying a potential fire hazard a potential were recalled. This time, the fire hazard is not due to batteries, but due to “irregularly positioned wires near the computer’s hinge and/or a dislodged screw inside the hinge,” which can cause a “short circuit and overheating”.

Affected are about 73,000 11.1” Vaio VGN-TZ100, VGN-TZ200, VGN-TZ300 and VGN-TZ2000 notebooks that were sold from July 2007 through August 2008 for prices between $1700 and $4000.

Sony said that it has received 15 reports of such cases - including one customer who suffered a minor burn - so far and is concerned enough to tell its customers to “stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.” Sony advised customers to contact Sony at (888) 526-6219 or via web at www.sony.com/support to determine if their notebook is affected. The firm will arrange for an inspection and repair, if needed.

The 2007 battery call cost Sony more than $430 million in recalls and affected every major notebook manufacturer worldwide – including Dell, which recalled 4.2 million computers, 526,000 Lenovo systems 340,000 Toshiba laptops, 287,000 Fujitsu notebooks, 90,000 Sony Vaio systems and 1.8 million Apple notebooks.