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Sun Ray 1 smokes: but only a little, says recall letter

Not a fire, just 'capacitor venting' - whew

Sun Microsystems has announced the field replacement of an unspecified number of its Sun Ray 1 appliances because of a defective capacitor in its power supply circuitry.

The hardware giant has sent a letter to customers which admits that it has detected a failure in the power supplies of a small number of Sun Ray 1 thin client devices.

"It has been determined that the components used do not perform to specification and are causing premature failures," Sun said in its letter.

In the event of failure "it will look like the Sun Ray 1 has lost power" and the LED on the device may play up.

"In very few cases, there may be a noise, like a 'pop' and maybe a small amount of 'smoke'", according to Sun, which said that this smoke is not the result of a fire, but only the sign of the suspect capacitor venting. That's a relief.

Sun stated the potential hardware failure was not a safety issue and that its Sun Ray 100 or 150 desktop workstations were unaffected by the problem. Only a limited number of the hardware giant's customers are likely to hit the problem but it is widespread enough for Sun to organise the replacement of Sun Ray 1 PSUs for all its customers.

Sun's Enterprise Services arm has been placed in charge of distributing replacement systems, which feature updated power supplies with components from a different manufacturer.

The replacement (recall) program, which will only begin in mid-December, and has been likened to Sun to replacing a telephone handset. Sun said the replacement would not affect customer data nor smart cards associated with a particular appliance.

Customers with failed unit should contact Sun Enterprise Services immediately. ®

External links:
Sun's letter to Sun Ray customers
Sun Ray 1 replacement FAQ

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