Badabings: Toshiba Satellite T130 series laptops recalled! (Burn Hazard)

Attention to all Toshiba notebook owners! Toshiba has announced a recall program for their Satellite T130 series laptop computers because of overheating issues.

Toshiba reported that certain Satellite T135, T135D and Satellite Pro T130 laptop computers have been manufactured with a potentially faulty DC-In harness. These computers will have model/part numbers beginning with PST3AU, PST3BU, or PST3LU. The defective harness may, in some circumstances, overheat to the point of melting the computer's base at the location where the AC adaptor plugs into the unit.

Though till date there have been no reports of serious injury, the temperature is sufficient to pose a burn hazard if specific parts of the DC-In Jack or plug are touched when they are overheated.

Toshiba is releasing a BIOS revision which will prevent the computer from overheating in this manner. To protect you from injury and your computer from damage, Toshiba strongly recommends that you update your system BIOS to version to 2.70 for the Satellite T135, 1.90 for the Satellite T135D and 2.70 for the Satellite Pro T130.

Should the BIOS determine that a harness failure is occurring, external power will immediately be disabled eliminating the possibility of the over heating. You will then need to contact the Toshiba call center to set up a warranty repair. If the harness failure is detected while the system is operating you will receive a system message indicating that the failure has occurred and that external power has been disabled. You may continue to use the system, without risk of overheating, using the remaining battery charge. You should immediately close all open files and applications to avoid any data loss. Once the data has been saved the system should be properly shutdown. It will not be possible to recharge the battery within the system until it has been repaired.

[via toshiba recall program]