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...

[Thalamus.]

By the way, do you know if the AR51e is on the extended warranty list? I haven't been able to find the list. 

Sony released a statement confirming that some Vaio models can have distorted video, random characters or blank screen issues due to failure of the NVIDIA graphics chip.

The models concerned are as follows..

VGN-FZ11x, VGN-FZ18x, VGN-FZ21x, VGN-FZ31x, VGN-FZ38x
VGN-AR11x, VGN-AR21x, VGN-AR31x
VGN-C1Zx, VGN-C2Zx
VGC-LM1xx, VGC-LM2xx
VGC-LT1xx, VGC-LT2xx

Click on the following link to read the Sony announcement: Distorted video, random characters or blank screen issues due to failure of the NVIDIA graphics chip

[kelbell]

Just a quick note to sing the praises of Sony EU repair service... I have a VGN AR41M which developed lots of vertical coloured lines on screen around 2 years ago - the problem got steadily worse until I was unable to use it when half of the screen turned black overnight. I bought it in the UK and have since moved to Spain. After a fair bit of worrying about finding the money to replace it (it was bought in 2007 and therefore out of warranty) I started to trawl messageboards to see if I could find anyone else who was experiencing the same problem. Seeing this thread gave me a little hope that I may be able to get it fixed. Although my model wasn't on the list, I thought I'd chance my arm and email them at the address I found on this thread - customersupport.en@vaio-link.com . They were relatively quick to reply (within 2 working days) and said there would be no problem about collecting my laptop in Spain and couriering it to a repair centre. It took 8 days for it to be repaired - I dropped it with a courier on 18th Nov, it was sent to Alsace and repaired, and I picked it up on 26th Nov. All free of charge. And they cleaned it! I am absolutely thrilled, and hope that anyone else with the same NVIDIA fault manages to get it rectified as quickly and as stress-free as I have.

[markj1993]

This sounds unbelievable! very rare. How did you go about this then?

As far as im concerned, Sony are unwilling to even consider a free repair, or even accept that it is the Nvidia problem, so how exactly did you do it!? and who did you speak to at customer support?

Thanks, Mark.

[Asusnak]

Hello everyone. Have just bought a two year old SONY VGN-NR21s/s and it has the same problem with the videochip.It has nVidia 8400m Gt. When i turn on my VAIO it shows strange lines on the screeen and doesn`t want to load windows. Blue screen appears.

  I wrote to sony for two times already but no answer.

  Looking forward in recieving any advice.

[kelbell]

Hiya Mark - I was unable to make any phone contact as I couldn't call an 0905 number from abroad, so it was email contact all the way... a little tedious when you're impatient like me!

All I did was tell them the problem, then they emailed me a troubleshooting list I had to follow and reply back with the results - then they asked me where I wanted the courier to pick it up from!

The only member of staff that I dealt with was Ola Gaafar (Sony  VAIO-Link Support Team)

Good luck x x x x

[onester]

VGN-NR21S

I have the same problem with the GPU 8400 the damn thing wont even boot into windows beause the grapics card has given up same blue lines and stuff i emailed sony about it but they wanted me to send it to them and would have to  pay £150 even if they didnt fix it so havent just left the laptop really annoyed why they havent made the  warranty extention to all laptops that have these gpus as they know theres a fault anyone with a vgn-nr21s managed to get thiers fixed?

[felixyo]

Hi Asusnak / Onester

I have the same laptop as you, VGN-NR21S, with another faulty Geforce 8400M GT

Two days ago I've again suffered from the well known Nvidia problems. I say "again", cos 7-8 months ago I had to send my laptop to Germany to have it fixed with the same GPU problem. How come one "top-brand" laptop can be broken two times over the last 28 months? This is a waste of money and time.

1. Bought it around Jun 2008
2. First problem, around April 2010 (20 months old)
3. Now again the same problem, December 2010 (8 months after being repaired, 28 months old, out of guarantee -2 years on products bought in Spain-)

Our model is not listed on Sony's faulty laptop list, even though they do have the same graphic card as the faulty ones. This is RIDICULOUS!

I'm waiting to be called from someone from the support group. They will of course offer me a paid reparation, which I won't obviously accept. I'd rather pay that money and buy a new no-faulty laptop (NOT SONY), with a new guarantee.

Asusnak / Onester, whould you mind to share with me your email addresses (via private message), just to be in touch in case we could join our efforts against Sony?

Is there anyone else having this model VGN-NR21S (or any other model not listed with a Geforce 8400M GT mounted), who would like to join a complaining group?

If someone from Sony is reading this, I just hope they'll think about the way they are badly supporting their customers. 1 angry customer will lead another 10 potential customers not to buy your brand. I'll make my bests to convince everyone around me that Sony is no longer the good-quality-brand as it used to be, and that's better to buy 2 cheaper Acer computers rather than one Sony.

Cheers, and sorry for my faulty English

Felix

[keschir]

I obviously just had the same issue. Is anyone still following the number of complaints? I would be glad to add my complaint # to the list as soon as they'll answer me.

[SeanOConnor1969]

My VGN-NR21S seems to have the same problems. I get fuzzy vertical lines on the VAIO logo on booting up and then dashed green vertical lines when it starts Windows. Then it crashes and reboots.

The strange thing is this started yesterday but after I rebooted it worked fine for the rest of the day and today until midday but since then it always has these problems.

Thanks to some advice in these forums I've disabled the GeForce 8400 driver in System | Device Manager (after booting in Safe Mode) and I can now run Windows but I guess it'll be slower and no longer suitable for games.

I noticed that the NR-21S is not in the list of laptops Sony admits have a problem but it seems like the same issue and other users here have the same problem too. Has anyone had any luck getting Sony to fix an NR-21S or other similar laptops that are not in the list?

[onester]

Just took these so theres now 3 posts on here within 5 posts with all the same problem same laptop SONY are a complete joke as all others using these chipsets have stepped up and said theres a problem and nvida have started paying out (http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/15/nvidias-faulty-laptop-gpu-settlement-starts-paying-out-file-yo/) so why are sony so greedy and DONT give a crap about their customers