BBC.co.uk:

Sony is recalling 3.5m faulty power adaptors which were sold with the black PlayStation 2 slimline version between August and December 2004. It said the power adaptor could overheat, causing damage or injury.

The free-standing adaptors were sold for the special slimline version of the successful games console. Sony had 40 complaints in the US about them.

Sony said it would replace returned adaptors for free. Two-thirds of the affected consoles were sold in Europe. About 960,000 of the units were sold in the US, 210,000 in Asia and 60,000 in Japan, according to Sony.

More than 50,000 slimline PlayStation 2s were sold in the UK during its first week on sale in November.

Space saving

Sony said it was taking the precautionary measure of recalling all the affected adaptors in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australasia.

In a statement, the company said that it was likely that some of the adaptors may also have been bought after December 2004. The adaptors were specially designed to be free-standing as a space-saving feature of the slimline models.

The specific models in question are SCPH70002, 70003 and 70004. People who think they may have one of the faulty adaptors are urged to go to www.ps2ac.com for more information. Sony said people should not return their faulty adaptors to the place they bought it.

In August 2004, Apple had to recall about 28,000 batteries used in some of its PowerBook laptops because of overheating problems.

And earlier this year, Microsoft was forced to recall Xbox power cables after 30 reports of minor injury or property damage. The recall affected almost three-quarters of all Xbox consoles sold around the world since its launch in 2001.