Sony and the British Broadcasting Corp. are at odds over the latter’s claim of a fault in the new PlayStation 3 consoles that results in a “yellow light of death.”

The term refers to a light on the PS3’s front that illuminates prior to the console shutting down. The BBC says the inadvertent shutdowns result from a design flaw discovered after the network was prompted by more than 150 complaints from viewers to air a consumer-affairs program about the new PS3s on Thursday.

According to the BBC, the shutdowns resulted from faults in the soldering of the console’s electrical components. But a Sony executive in Europe disputed the network’s claim, calling it “highly unfair” and not representative of PS3s in general.

The executive insists “less than half a percent” of the redesigned PS3s sold to date have suffered system failure. Acceptable failure rates for most consumer electronics fall between 2 percent and 3 percent.

The BBC’s findings are based on PS3s sold overseas. But what are your findings? Game Guy asks whether you’ve suffered a system failure of the new PS3, and if so, whether it was indicated by a “yellow light of death.”