Nvidia G84m/G86m faulty chip happen to Vaio??

[6800gt]

I just wonder if anyone has the alleged graphic problem with your vaio series. I got AR51J with 8400m GT early this year. So far it works fine, but not sure it would die shortly :smileysad:. What's the sony's response?

origin story: All Nvidia G84 and G86s are bad
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/07/09/nvidia-g84-g86-bad

Channel Vendors Demand Graphics Cards Suppliers to Recall Potentially Faulty Nvidia GeForce Graphics Cards.
Resellers Want to Return Potentially Faulty Nvidia GeForce Graphics Boards to Makers
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/video/display/20080725123120_Channel_Vendors_Demand_Graphics_Cards_Supp...

[andytsun]

+1, yup developed the same problem last week.... i reinstalled windows to see if it resolved the issue... but the lines still reappear... things are more stable on power saver mode, but this is not acceptable. The only problem is, I bought mine from Lasky's in the UK and now live in China. I may have no chance of getting this fixed.. Will see.

[andytsun]

Here you go.

[Yvash]

Like most people in this thread, I've been having graphics trouble with my Vaio. My particular problem, however, is that while my AR51E has exectly the same nVidia 8400 GPU as the afflicted Vaios listed, it hasn't been covered for some reason - and I've had to send it to be repaired twice already since I got it in November 2007.

History time!
Both repairs were luckily done under the 1 year standard warranty (the laptop died first in the last month of said warranty). When it died first time, it was a catastrophic failure, that I'm convinced was caused by the GPU overheating and shorting, taking out the motherboard and HD and other sundry hardware with it. The laptop was dead, couldn't be turned on, nothing. I sent it to be repaired, it came back operational but hung whenever it tried to access the GPU - so it was sent back, this time for several weeks until it was fixed, after many phonecalls where I had to stipulate what was wrong.

This time it was working pretty much fine - I lost a hideous ammount of data and work from the repairs (Sony wanted to charge me £300 for giving the damaged HD back), something I doubt I'll ever recover from - but the laptop worked at full capacity again at least. Unfortunately, a few months later, the GPU was overheating again, and I started to get monitor black-outs infrequently about halfway through 2009. I couldn't do anything except hard reset after it happened, but when I did things were fine for a while. These blackouts got more frequent, and in February this year, I started to get VGA failure on startup (the three beeps). I could get into windows if I hard reset a few times, and everything seemed to be fine after diagnostics - then 2 weeks ago, the GPU died completely, giving me the same startup lines and patterns people have shown on this thread - windows become inaccesible unless going through safemode. I'd like to thank whoever pointed out that it's possible to disable the GPU in safemode to make the laptop at least partially useable. But 90% of my laptop's functionality is gone, along with the GPU.

I just wondered how I should go about contacting Sony in regards getting it repaired. Since it uses the exact same GPU chipset as the listed laptops, was produced at the same time and has had a history of graphical faults as described in this thread, surely I should be able to get it repaired under the 4 year extended warranty offered to the listed laptops?

I was surprised Sony even (finally) admitted the nVidia chipsets were faulty. When the news first came out, and I'd been experiencing GPU overheating, Sony told me implicitely that they didn't use those chips when it went to repair the first time...

I love my laptop, and just want it to work properly again.

[Thalamus.]

+1, yup developed the same problem last week.... i reinstalled windows to see if it resolved the issue... but the lines still reappear... things are more stable on power saver mode, but this is not acceptable. The only problem is, I bought mine from Lasky's in the UK and now live in China. I may have no chance of getting this fixed.. Will see.

Hi nadytsun,

welcome to Club VAIO..

Hopefully as this is a world wide issue I would hope vaio China would be able to repair your vaio FOC..

Please let me know Vaio Chna's response to your request for repair.

[Thalamus.]

I just wondered how I should go about contacting Sony in regards getting it repaired

Hi Yvash,

welcome to Club VAIO..

You will need to discuss this with Vaio support, to find contact details for Sony Vaio support..

Open Vaio support, either by clicking Support at the top of this page or use the following link:Vaio support

Under Log-in option 2: Select your VAIO model, next to Select Model Category - Select your model from the drop down list, in your case VGN AR.

Then next to Select Model - select AR51E

Then click Log-In

Once logged select Get In Touch

[Yvash]

I just wondered how I should go about contacting Sony in regards getting it repaired

You will need to discuss this with Vaio support, to find contact details for Sony Vaio support..

Unfortunately, I have just spent the last hour talking to Vaio support and Sony are still denying that my model laptop (AR51E) is faulty because of the bad set of GPUs, despite this being the third failure within 2 years of purchase. Apparently, afflicted AR51E users do not represent a big enough user-base to qualify for the 4 year warranty repair. I have been sent a transcript of the chat.

So, does anyone have any advice or experience on how to get in touch with Trading Standards (I live in the UK) on the subject? Since Sony themselves do not seem to think it is unlikely or unacceptable that a laptop suffer GPU failure three times in 2 years using the same chipset, I evidently need some backup in this case...

This is a major shame for me as my family and I have been Sony users for 30 years or more, including Vaios for both business and leisure, and yet my laptop, manufactured in 2007 and repaired long before Sony even admitted the chipset was faulty, is broken.

[baw-bag]

Unfortunately, I have just spent the last hour talking to Vaio support and Sony are still denying that my model laptop (AR51E) is faulty because of the bad set of GPUs, despite this being the third failure within 2 years of purchase. Apparently, afflicted AR51E users do not represent a big enough user-base to qualify for the 4 year warranty repair. I have been sent a transcript of the chat.

So, does anyone have any advice or experience on how to get in touch with Trading Standards (I live in the UK) on the subject? Since Sony themselves do not seem to think it is unlikely or unacceptable that a laptop suffer GPU failure three times in 2 years using the same chipset, I evidently need some backup in this case...

This is a major shame for me as my family and I have been Sony users for 30 years or more, including Vaios for both business and leisure, and yet my laptop, manufactured in 2007 and repaired long before Sony even admitted the chipset was faulty, is broken.

Hi Yvash,

Your situation sounds very similar to mine and I totally sympathise (see my posts from 2/3 pages back). I have the AR41S which also is not on the recall list, and as expected, Sony were unwilling to recognise Nvidia faults with models not on the list.

Since no-one seems to have suggested a practical solution to my/our issues so far, heres my two cents. Basically you have two options to get your laptop working again ASAP -

1. (RECOMMENDED) Find a third-party laptop repair shop who can fix GPU issues like this. This shouldnt be too difficult using Google and Ebay. Many provide a collection and delivery service if you live far from London etc. Generally there are two fixes available - reflow and reballing. Reflow uses a special machine to heat the GPU so that the faulty solder connections (source of the problem) are reconnected. Reballing requires the GPU chip removed completely and the solder replaced to prevent it happening again. Personally I would look for a reballing solution but there are less companies who do this and it may be also be slightly more expensive.

2. (NOT RECOMMENDED UNLESS YOU ARE AN IT OR ELECTRONICS EXPERT) Repair it yourself using a heat gun. This is essentially a DIY reflow job, where you take the laptop apart and reconnect the solder by blasting the GPU chip with the heat gun. Guides to this procedure, and a step-by-step service manual to dismantle your laptop, can be found via Google and Youtube. This is the option I took, and amazingly my laptop worked again after this. However, I am an IT expert and confident with electronics (and also very brave/stupid), so I definitely WONT recommend this solution unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing. Also, I'm sure the 'experts' on this forum will take a dim view of this particular course of action, but hey, its an option and it worked for me.

I did consider the Trading Standards route which you suggested, but to be honest I just don't have the time and willpower to go through with it and really just wanted my laptop working ASAP again. But best of luck, and make sure to keep us updated whatever you decide to do!

Regards!

[DSdesign]

i have an fz had 5 bourd fitted all failed in 2 hours and am preparing to take sony to court to get a full refund

[DSdesign]

i advise people to do the same their repairs dont work

[nedhodzi]

VGN-FZ21S 18 months old, seems I've got the same failure as everyone else here.
I contact Sony, and got the usual response, out of warranty, chargeable repair....

Now that I have read this forum and found a Sony announcment about free of charge repair and my model is on the list I will give it a go....

I'll keep you posted...

Someone did mention that these laptops get very hot in the lower right corner on the bottom side. Indeed my laptop has been like that ever since I got it.

Anyway, many thanks to all the people who make this forum useful...