FOLLOWING WARNINGS earlier this week that 535,000 units of Sony’s Vaio brand personal computers may be in danger of overheating, the electronics giant has now provided free 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.

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.

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.

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