By James Wells

SYDNEY: Lexar Australia has announced the recall of its JumpDrive Firefly high speed USB flash drives sold in Australia between April Fool’s Day and 31 May, 2006.

“Lexar has identified a potential issue in JumpDrive FireFly products sold between April 1 and May 31, 2006 in the following capacities: 256MB, 512MB, 1GB and 2GB,” the company said in a statement.

The recalled product has been sold in several different colours in four capacities – 256MB, 512MB, 1GB and 2GB.

“The Lexar logo is embossed in the front of the plastic housing with the capacity marked on the back. The markings on the units affected have an A following the capacity nomenclature: 3791-256A-WWYY, 3793-256A-WWYY, 3791-512A-WWYY, 3793-512A-WWYY, 3793-1GBA-WWYY, 3791-1GBA-WWYY, 3792-1GBA-WWYY, 3792-2GBA-WWYY, 3792-4GBA-WWYY.

“Certain configurations of these products have a potential to overheat, creating a potential risk of injury and property damage. The potential for the products to overheat was identified by Lexar during testing; no reports of overheating during use have been reported. All affected products shipped to retailers have been returned to Lexar and most retail stores have already received replacement products and are actively selling them.”

Lexar is offering consumers with JumpDrive products with two options – either choose another model of the same capacity to replace the existing JumpDrive or choose the same JumpDrive model. The company expects this replacement process to take up to two weeks to complete.

To process the recalled product, consumers must fill out a form at http://store.lexar.com/jdrecallAU/ and ship their faulty product.

“If you would like to return your product for a refund, please contact the store in which you purchased the product for a refund, replacement, or store credit. Please note that each retailer has its own specific return and refund policies,” the company said in its statement.

Consumers can contact a recall hotline on 1800 106 256 at any time for more assistance.

Over 66,000 units of the Lexar flash drives have been recalled in North America. The Firefly drives were sold at discount department, office supply, and electronics stores, and by Web retailers, including www.lexar.com for between $US30 and $US110.

Lexar has also recalled the JumpDrive® Secure II 1GB drive in North America which retailed for $US80. The flash drive, which was also recalled due to a risk of burns to consumers and property damage, was exclusively sold at Fry’s Electronics.