Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery

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.

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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