Affected Sony Vaio Nvidia laptops... temp?

hi folks have my fz38m since march 08 and the average gpu temp using gpuz is 58 deg C..

its the FZ38M so its affected by the possible Nvidia fault..


if you have an affected machine what temp is it running at?

cheers

 

My FZ190 is running at 58 deg C, right now. But the Nvidia fault does not affect the temps, it's the other way round. Heating and cooling cycles are the culprit in the failure of the Nvidia chips. The wider the temperature swing and the faster the rise and fall the more damage is done. The issue was in the difference in the coefficient of expansion in the substrate of the chip and the bonding solder bumps. These two should expand and contract at the same rate. They don't, so small cracks begin to appear, eventually leading to failure.

Gary

 

Does that mean that the affected laptops , I have fz38m , will most
likely fail?
Is it a time bomb waiting to go off at the worst possible time?

Also a rise in temp may indicate the impending failure

 

My 8400M GT goes from 58C to 71C depending upon usage.

 

Is it a time bomb? Probably. Will it ever go off? No way to know that for sure.

NO! That's what I explained in the last post. The rise in temps is not an indication of impending failure. The rise and fall in temp and the speed of that rise and fall are the CAUSE of the Nvidia failures. The rise in temps is an indication of the GPU working hard, and ONLY an indication of that.

Gary

 

Mine ranges from 58C to 77C depending on use. But that high end is not for any signficant amount of time.

Gary

 

My SZ idles around 74° (F) - up from 71°-72° about six months ago. (Vents are cleaned monthly and it's internally cleaned every quarter)

I made it a point (once I heard about the defective chipsets) to run it exclusively under "Speed Mode" in the hopes that it would fail within the warranty period (and also to serve as a baseline with users that switch (or use only) the integrated graphics). It hasn't failed yet but when I do push the Nvidia chipset (games, mostly) it really starts getting uncomfortably close to those dangerous 90°s temperatures.

It's really just a matter of time for me I think. It would be great for Sony to extend the warranty to also include the (later) SZ line but the dual video adapters have probably skewed their failure rates for this model to the point where they don't consider it a problem (yet). We'll see.

 

Looks like installing new Nvidia driver ( dated July 2009 on Sony Europe, found it today , actually with release date of Nov 2008 - 7.15.11.6760) brought minimum idle temps down from 70 to 58

 

Whoa! That is quite a difference. Can you post a link to that driver? I assume it was ONLY for your specific model. (BTW what model is that? You have an FZ model too, right?)

Is this the one: Graphics Driver (NVIDIA) 7.15.11.6760

Gary

 

Yes it is. I am astonished running it since few hours and monitoring temps.
It is not that this new driver is so great but definitely what I had before was POS, I had to run the FZ21S (8600GS) on 3 fan cooler this entire summer. Even with cooler the GPU was between 70-84. Otherwise FZ was often hanging, freezing and I was already thinking to ask service to replace the Arctic paste or whatever (I have to give it for DVD drive replacement so thought I should complain about high temps and let them do it as part of the repair)
Today it is first time running fine with the cooler off, the most significant is the difference while idle.

 

Thanks aviray,

That really is quite a difference. My FZ190 has the 8400GT so I wonder if I will see the same sort of drop. And I am curious what they did to make such a huge difference.

BTW did you follow the Sony instructions on how to install this? Specifically they say to uninstall the old driver via device manager and then run the executable to install the new driver and then reboot.

I ask this because I recall you posting about an issue you had with installing a video driver. Was that related to THIS driver or another one?

Gary

 

Yes, this one. I tried to follow the Engrish instructions,( as musician I have years of experience biting through Yamaha, Korg, Roland manuals but still wasn't up to the challenge) you cant easily follow since it is esoteric poetry, like some Zen koans. Anyway I managed somehow so it is all good.

 

So did you do it this way, as suggested on the Sony Europe download page?

Or did you do something else? What trouble did you have and how did you resolve it?

Gary

 

The original quote
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Exit all running programs.
Download this update and save it to your hard drive.
Click the Windows Orb, Right-click on My Computer, and select Manage
Click on Device Manager
In Display Adapters, Uninstall the currently installed version of the nVidia graphics adapter.
When the download is completed, locate the downloaded file in the location you specified.
Double-click EP0000185336.exe to run it.
Wait while the wizard updates your software.
When the installation is complete, restart the VAIO
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> end of origial quote


Note that the whole thing looks like order of sentences was messed up it maybe should be

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
modified version
<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>
Exit all running programs.
Download this update and save it to your hard drive.
When the download is completed, locate the downloaded file in the location you specified.
Click the Windows Orb, Right-click on My Computer, and select Manage
Click on Device Manager
In Display Adapters, Uninstall the currently installed version of the nVidia graphics adapter.
Double-click EP0000185336.exe to run it.
Wait while the wizard updates your software.
When the installation is complete, restart the VAIO.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>


You know what I mean? They talk about downloading then jump to uninstalling then jump back to download. It is ENGRISH issue I suppose, I am sure in Japanese it all make sense.
Note that even my modified order of sentences does not solve the question of to reboot or not after uninstalling, that was definitely "lost in translation".
I think the best way is, uninstall from device manager, restart in safe mode, install new driver, reboot.

 

No way a driver could bring the temp down that much. What driver were you using before? The ambient temp, usage affect the GPU temperature very much.
I am using Nvidia 186.42 driver from MS Update catalog and my FZ idles at 55-65 C.

 

That is why I said- the previous one was junk, dont remember when installed it, original wasnt so bad, could be that I downloaded with MS update. Anyway I am still impressed , like right now doing some 100% CPU stuff and it max at 73, used to go to 84 and never under 65 while idle.

 

I had used this driver before (an year back I guess) and didn't notice any cool down. Also throttling the CPU to 100% doesn't always mean that GPU should be getting hot.

 

When did MS Update offer you 186.42? I am still on 167.43 and don't recall every seeing a newer version via MS Update.

Gary

 

It's from MS Update catalog. You can get it here.
http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=nvidia 8.15.11.8642 (Use IE to open link)
You can download any X86 or X64 driver (64-bit - larger file size). You can use 7-zip to extract the .cab file. This driver works perfectly in my Windows 7 64-bit and Vista 32-bit. Actually MS update catalog has regular Nvidia driver updates.

Make sure 8400M GT is listed in the nv_whql.inf (the inf in the .cab file you downloaded)

 

Never used that site before. + rep (Hmmm, NBR won't let me give you any rep since you were the lasr person I gave rep to. Sigh)

But I am confused a bit. Only the 64 bit versions say they are for Win7 or Vista. All the 32 bit versions say they are for Win7. Are you saying that they all are for win7 or Vista? It's a bit odd that there are so many versions with the same number. This page could sure use a bit of clarification.

Gary

 

In case of stuff I mostly do, it does. Anyway the GPU was always the hottest part on my FZ, as I see it now, probably contributing to to overall rise in temp. watched temp monitor some more last night while doing some renderings etc and could see temps as low as never before. Do not remember what was the previous driver but it was dated 2007.
Since I am going to give my FZ for repair anyway, want to give Win 7 a run (I will put another HDD before bringing it to dealer so instead of recovery Vista can test the 7, specially the temps) any links for FZ Win7 64 instalation procedure, driver sources ?

 

Don't worry about that.

Yes, that site is pretty confusing. Any 32-bit or 64-bit driver supports both Vista and Windows 7. Be sure to check the inf (nv_whql.inf) for 8400M GT. Anyway when installing you will know whether your OS / card is supported. The set up will not run in a unsupported OS and unsupported graphics card.

 

You can extract the 64-bit drivers and apps (Vista Ultimate 64-bit) of VGN-FW390 using Universal extractor and then install them in your FZ.
The following drivers and apps should be extracted.
1. SFEP driver
2. Sony Notebook utilities
3. Sony shared library
Other 64-bit drivers can be found in the links below
http://vaio-link.com/os/vista/64bit/
ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/VAIO/ORIGINAL/

(I will PM if you need more info)