Sony Vaio Laptop - VGN-NR32Z/Nvidia 8400M GT

[General-Blaki]

All

I owned the above laptop since December 2008. Was working nicely all these years until yesterday.

Screen went black - used to display messages something like "Nvidia display stopped responding and successfully recovered" - but now it has stopped displaying such messages altogether - the screen just flickers black and nothing displays at all - restarted the PC and it displays lines all across the screen.

The time that I do manage to get it working - which is after 10 minutes after it has cooled down - I can only use it for 20-25 minutes when the screen just goes black again. I thought it was a fault with the driver so I tried to update it  - but i got a system message to say I got the latest drivers installed. I  re-installed Vista and nothing changed. I installed all the Window Updates -but nothing has changed.

Having done my research on the internet  - it seems this is a common problem with all Vaio models with the 8400M GT Graphic card - and that they recalled laptops with such graphic cards in the States -  due to poor packaging which lead to the unit overheating.

Which brings me to my main point - how do I solve this problem?  I spoke to the retailer but they weren;t very helpful as they said I will have to pay a fee of £80 just to get it sent to Sony and for them to have a look at it and any parts they will charge extra - and from his experience graphic cards cost about 300 quid minimum?

Anyone had this problem before? If so please advice - HELP!

Really spoilt my weekend this.

[Blencogo]

It may well be that there is a problem with the nVidia 8400M GT but your model is not one that Sony have identified as being from the faulty batch and any repair will be expensive.  You could try a reflow - a process which attempts to mend the soldered contacts of the chip.

Have you tried every other possible cause first? 

1.  Try shining a torch on the screen.  Can you see an image?  If so, your backlight or inverter may be faulty.

2.  Try connecting an external monitor.  Does this still show the same fault or does it show OK?

3.  Try tapping F2 during booting.  Do the BIOS screens display OK?

4.  Does the screen work OK in Safe Mode?

[General-Blaki]

In response to your point as follows

1) no can't see an image.

2) Yes same fault

3) BIOS screen displays but with red vertical lines scattered acround the screen.

4) I can get to safe mode but with terrible display.

Is my laptop repairable?  I dont mind paying a fair price to get it repaired by Sony as long as its not something ridiculous like 300-400 which is more or less the price for a new laptop these days.

Has anyone else experienced this problem???

[Blencogo]

I would try talking to one of Sony's Service Partners near you.  Some offer a reflow option which is not guaranteed to work but is much cheaper.

A full list of Service Partners in the UK can be found here: -

http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/contacts/asc.aspx?l=en_GB&m=VGN-NR32Z_T

[popeye67]

If bis displays theres nothing wrong with screen, if display works in safe mode (even if the resolution is rubbish) theres nothing wrong with the graphics card/chip, fact it works in safe mode and the fact you are experiencingf overheating problems would sugest that there is something running at startup that shouldnt, run msconfig and see whats starting up that shouldnt be, and run a good anti virus like malwarebytes or pre boot scan with avast and then ccleaner.

[colsay]

Hi

I have a Sony VPCCW1S1E. 18 months trouble free and now about 4 times a day it crashes with "Display driver NVIDIA windows kernel mode driver version 259.57 stopped working and has successfully recovered".

If you Google "display driver nvidia etc" there are hundreds of entries so this is clearly a common problem and I am a bit disappointed I am drawing a blank with Sony Support. As it is out of warranty I don't feel like footing the bill to investigate what almost certainly is a very common design/manufacturing fault.

Help, anyone??