Days after the BBC exposed a “Yellow light of death” problem with the Sony PS3 a US consumer has sued the Japanese consumer technology giant with a class action claim based on problems associated with a recent PS3 firmware update.

The  disgruntled PlayStation 3 owner from Florida in the USA filed his claim early last month claiming that the firmware upgrade had caused PS3 units to “malfunction and actually damaged the hardware on many units.” The suit claims Sony is charging $150 to repair PS3s with “sustained hardware damage” from the update.

In Australia, SmartHouse has been told that Sony Computer Entertainment is asking over $300 to fix problems with the gaming console.

After some early reports of a problem with update 3.0, Sony claimed that they had fixed the problem however several owners incluing the claimant from Florida say that  Sony’s update doesn’t actually correct the problem. In fact, he says the “fix” actually caused further problems with the console’s Blu-ray drive

The suit accuses SCEA of breach of implied warranty, negligence, negligent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, and other counts. The suit is seeking restitution, unspecified monetary damages and legal fees. As of yet, Sony hasn’t commented on the matter.

Although I’ve read a few scattered posts on the internet about the issue, my PS3 is fine, and no one I know has had this happen to his or her system either — G4 has a lot of PlayStation 3 owners, too. Still, there are scattered reports on the internet, and a guy in Florida is angry enough to sue, so maybe there is something to this.

What do you think? Have you experienced this problem. If so send an email to dwr@4squaremedia.com or make a comment to this story.