Defective Nvidia chipsets in your current Vaio?

My temperatures were "ok" when this news was released months back but recently my gpu and cpu started to hit 90C whilst gaming. I've cleaned it and applied new thermal paste and temps are lot better now......around 70 - 75C max for both CPU and GPU. To me those temps look fine but still confused whether my 8600GS is faulty. My warranty has recently finished too.

 

This looks promising - Sony is looking at forums

Let's hope they'll budge at some point.

Brest of luck to you two!!

(-I guess I should feel happy that I only use the X3100 on my SZ all the time, so when I do need the NVidia it won't be enough to "wear it out")

 

Yeah thats at least something, but it was me who through e-support posted the links and told them to look. The strange thing is that their conclusion after taking a look on the forums were that vaio's wasn't affected..

 

Sounds laughable and it is...

I suppose a "simple representative" can't decide they are faulty and has to repeat the party line - but lets hope someone gets worried

 

has anyone discussed a lawsuit over this issue? i've been told there may very well be a case for it.

about sony "looking at" the forums... i'm sure that's all it was. they saw the enormous 55/56 page thread and went running... haha.

 

Well, let's see.

I know there is a petition running...

And about suing Sony, I believe 1 or 2 have spoken to a lawyer...

The problem is, Sony can legally say "there is no issue" as long as NVidia doesn't aknowledge the issue, and the problem is, if NVidia does they're history....

 

quite a frustrating situation... i'm currently posting from safe mode again. the issue is real. i wish there was an easier way to get this problem solved. I may be able to get that doubled warranty from the credit card company. I have to check my card history to make sure i used the right card.

 

The thing that seems quite difficult with a lawsuit is that the people who have this issue lives is many different parts of the world. Maybe it could be done anyway though.

 

Not only has jonaas informed Vaio Support about these ussues described on forums... But they still insist that there is no problem with nVidia cards in Vaio.

I called Vaio Repair Center in the morning and they told me that my Vaio was waiting for lvcd (or something like that) cable... I did not manage to get to know anything more about the defect in my Vaio.

I need to confirm that my Vaio had exactly the same symptoms as the ones included into duckiedeity's post.

 

I'm wondering if they will sneak in a new GPU (& mainboard) claiming something else has failed...

 

I can post pictures of my bootup sequence if you'd like. I only have a cell phone camera though, and a sort of crappy one at that. I'll have them up in a couple minutes though.

 

that second image is that ....:::......::::....::::... pattern. in the first one, the green lines are more separated from each other and are more like dotted lines. the resolution is so bad they look like regular, not-dotted lines and they look like they blend together, but they don't.

 

GPU failure...

 

Guys I have the exact same issue with my fz180 - boot up sequence is exactly as in these pics. I bought the Laptop from the US now I live in Athens - Greece and will go to SONY greece next week to sort it out. I will post info from here about the problem.

 

I'm sorry to see that you guys also has this issue, but at the same time it's a good thing, the more we are the better our chanses.

A minor update on my case: I recieved a call from sony yesterday (yes 24/12) but he didn't say anything interesting really, just stated that the repair-departement will call me soon. He also found it strange that the store where i bought the computer wanted to take a look at it, maybe that's something isolated to Sweden?
So I'm basically waiting for repair-center to call me. And for my vendor to give me their opinion on the issue.

 

So, I posted a while back about graphics card issues with my Vaio FZ180. In any case, I decided to get an extended warranty for the laptop and get it repaired instead of waiting for Sony to do something useful. This has been mentioned before but I'll mention it again. So most of the people I see here are out of their one year warranty that came with their notebooks (mine was a month out). Apparently you can get an extended warranty from Sony despite not being covered at the time of purchase. The only catch I can see is that you have to wait 30 days after purchase for whatever reason, which I think is reasonable. Basically, if you're out of warranty, it'll cost you upwards of $600 to repair a defective graphics card (cause it's integrated with the motherboard), but you can buy an extended warranty for about $200 and that'll cover your repair costs (again, the catch being that you have to wait a while before your laptop gets repaired). In any case, I'll keep this forum updated with my little adventure through graphics card failure hell.

 

New NB8E-SET GPUs recommended by Nvidia to avoid the whole chip-failure thing..

More info here:

Nvidia's Solution To Defective GPUs : Buy Our New Chips

 

So who is going to supply motherboards with these new chips and fit them into out laptops without voiding the warranty and without making us pay?

 

I now think we have the "smoking gun". I am waiting to see if the guy from the inquirer website picks up on this.

Gary

 

Now that is true.

 

Has anyone seen a link to the ORIGINAL source for the note from Nvidia? Right now all we have is what would legally be called "hear say". It would be really good to find the original.

Gary

 

It looks like they just picked up the story..

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/162/1050162/nvidia-recomends-not-buying-its-defective-chips

 

This "solution" is great for those who are still trying to decide what gpus to buy, but does absolutely nothing for those of us stuck with the faulty gpu already. I am so disgusted.

 

I am so nervous and disappointed. I called Vaio Rapair Center in the morning and I got to know that they were still waiting for the cable! They still insist that it is the lvcd cable that is faulty... (BTW: I had exactly the same screens as duckieduity has). I am really afraid that when they get the calbe at last it will turn out that the problem still exists.... and as a result the repair will last endlessly ...or I will have to send Vaio to Repair Center again

I know I am lucky because I have a four-year warranty (standard plus extended). But I spent a lot of money on Vaio and later on additional warranty... and I do not have my Vaio for a long time for the second time now. I might just as well have no vaio or no warranty....

 

Hello guys & gals:

writing to report my problem as well. My vaio vgn-fz180e has exactly the same problem as described above. It started as i was gaming, then suddenly the pc just froze totally. when i tried to reboot it, it stopped at the loading screen and showed exactly the :::::: : ::::: artifacts as mentioned above, they kinda look like gray stitch marks in a pattern across the whole screen. After trying to reboot it again it goes straight into startup recovery mode, and eventually after a few more tries itll boot up, but soon as i try to use a graphics application such as photoshop or a game, the pc will freeze again. With the help of a friend, we figured out it was a graphic card error, so i went ahead and uninstalled the nvidia drivers, and without them installed i can at least use the pc for internet surfing but i can't work at all with it (im a graphic designer) or use any sort of graphic application.

I am calling Sony right now and i think im being transferred to a level 2 technician.

Last time i sent my vaio to repair ( i think its a little over a year since i bought it but i had bought the 4 year extended warranty) it spent almost 2 weeks in there so im totally disheartened thinking this could take as long or longer, since i need my pc to work and don't have access to another one at the moment. I'll post any updates afterwards.

*update* technician will contact me in 48 hours

 

Make sure you get a case number and the name of the tech. Post those here.

Before they call I would arm yourself with all the info on the inquirer site (links are posted earlier in this thread). The most recent one is the smoking gun, because Nvidia has told there OEM's to be sure they buy the latest version of the chip which has the proper "blobs" and proper underfill. Be firm with Sony, that there IS a known defect. Reference those articles. Do NOT let them tell you there batches of Nvidia chips were not affected. Nvidia has indicated ALL batches were affected.

Gary

 

The point is that the Vaio support (at least in Poland) neither denies that the nVidia chips are faulty nor confrims this. They say nothing about reasons of all these syndroms. The only thing they said was that they did not have similar cases in Poland. They organize the air transport, inform Vaio users about progress in the diagnoses and repair process. She or he writes down all the observations of Vaio user in their computer system and that is all. I have no influence on how and what part in my Vaio the technicians repair or replace.

 

Anyone else besides examiner here have an SZ with this defect? Really don't want the wife's SZ680N to go south.

 

I believe mine is a candidate. It's relatively new so I've no failures to report although I'm seeing evidence that I'm in the first stages of failure (GPU idle temps have slowly increased). I do run exclusively under SPEED mode so I'm hoping that whatever happens happens within the warranty period.

I believe think anyone that purchased a SZ from May 2007 onwards is a candidate for failure and may want to consider re-evaluating how they use their notebook for the purpose of making the most out of a bad situation. (with particular care in noting the intensity (stress) and length (session) of applications (or OS) that use the Nvidia GPU.)

The safest thing for SZ owners is to switch the notebook into STAMINA mode (if you're not already there) and just leave it. This is also one of the reasons we suspect of having fewer SZ reports compared to the other lines with the same chipset.

 

Here it goes ..I have been following this thread from last 1 months ....I have FZ290 with 8400GT ..warranty over just by a month .. last night graphics gone weird ... system froze ... vista device manager displays this error .. "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)" ... weird graphics display right from the boot screen till the welcome screen & stays .... Tried re-installing the nVidia drivers .. NO Success. I bought this laptop from US & now in India .. no plan to return to US any sooner .... warranty over in any case .... So what's the Solution ? .. I guess $600 or more for repairs is too much & when you r not sure whether the repaired motherboard would last any longer ? .. can't we use some external graphics card in this laptop ( If there's any ) ? or can the repair be cheaper if some engineer solder another graphics card on the same motherboard ( I guess not ) .. so $1150 gone waste in 13 months ...I hope it would have lasted atleast 3 to 4 yrs .. Why dont Sony accept this defect if Nvidia has ?& arrange for free repairs or replacements worldwide for their affected products .. after all IT's A SONY LIKE NO OHTER.....................

 

This is standard operating procedure for most corporations. If you admit to something, you accept liability.
If you deny something, you may also open the company to litigation, if it turned out you knew the truth was otherwise.

Support will never be allowed to answer a question that could lead to liability, one way or another. Those policies are decided by men in Armani suits with slits for the dorsal fin.

 

Hello.....I have a vaio fz15g with a 8400M GT processor. From a few days after i purchased it last year, it has been overheating. I thought that it must be due to windows aero and other stuff in vista and finally downgraded to windows xp. It brought the temperature down and i was happy until yesterday when i noticed it was hot again. I shut it down and today morning when i switched it on, i had wierd lines on my screen. and i am also not able to boot into windows if i have the nvidia graphics drivers installed. Sad thing is that i just ran out of warranty. Do you guys know how much it will cost me to get it fixed? And should i wait for sony to acknowledge this?

 

Waht was it?
600 odd Pounds/Dollars I think...

I don't know if Sony will aknowledge it.

 

Does anyone know if the current 9300M GS Nvidia cards that Sony are puting in the Z's are defective? I'm considering buying a Z but I'm unsure whether I should avoid Nvidia all together and get the SR with the ATI graphics card insted.

Any info would be much appreciated.

 

They shouldn't be.
No one really knows.

 

Apparently only the G92 and G94 are affected you "should" be safe with the 9300GS.

 

I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 with an NVIDIA 8400M GS 128mb graphics card. I received the laptop in January of 2008. Would my card be affected?

I just recently read about the issues associated with these cards. I can't say I've had any problems that I've really paid attention to except that my fan kicks on quite often when there are graphics intensive applications open. I've probably dismissed signs of problems since I had no knowledge of this issue.

I apologize if I'm re-posting things that have already been covered in this thread. Thanks in advance.

 

Technically you are in the wrong section of the forum - Sony vs Dell.

But yes, your card should be amongst the affected ones.

You may want to contact Dell.
Constant fan on while doing graphics intensive tasks is normal.

Heat is not the issue - heat cycles are.

 

Sorry, didn't read the thread topic. My mistake. Thanks for the input nonetheless. My apologies.

 

Hey guys. My screen suddently went off as I was backing up my files. I have no picture now (blank!) and the laptop seems not to be booting up when I power it on. I have only the power led on and no activity on the hard drive. It went dead. Does anybody else encounter the same problem? Any ideas? Thanks! Got to get to Sony asap...

 

Dell actually released a BIOS update unlike Sony who are doing nothing.

 

A BIOS update does little to rectify the fault.
All it can do is extend the time needed for the card to fail by a few more months/days depending on usage.

Downclocking the GPU and reducing its capabilities.

 

New Update:

so my case number is 2805901. I have been calling Sony mostly every day since the 29th of december and today I still hadn't received a call from a technitian. When i called this morning the rep gave me the phone number of the technitian that was supposed to handle my case over here, so i gave them a call.

Apparently, what sony did was send over a new motherboard so that it will be replaced. I really do not know if this will fix the problem or not, but I had forgotten to post that previously, in 2007, I had a problem with this PC and they had done the same thing. Actually this is the third motherboard that sony has sent over to be replaced for this pc.

I really do not know what to do with this. I need my pc to work, so im going to let the technician replace the motherboard. But what am i to expect? That this will keep on happening till the moment that im not covered by the warranty? I am very dissappointed with sony and their service or lack thereof.

im not sure if a motherboard replacement would really have anything to do with this. any thoughts?

 

That wasn't my point. The point was we pay almost double the price for a Vaio over an equivalent Dell and we get zero support when we need it most. Disgraceful.

 

Well - getting no support seems like a better alternative as being "lied to" - where I use the term "lied to" maybe a bit too losely.

Dell was first claiming a BIOS update would solve the problem - yes, for say a mónth until your warranty runs out?

Sony only tries not to aknowledge the fault - that's a bit better.

But in the light of chnages in the stance made by Dell & HP a change from Sony would be nice too.

 

Hi All,

I've just gave the last 2 hours reading this thread, WOW...

You can put me down as another Vaio Customer with a Fried GPU.

The model is a FZ18E, with the 8400M GT and like many people here it is out off warranty, in my case by 4 months.

I rang Support this morning and explained everything, now I have my A+, and Network + certs and I am currently doing a degree in IT Support, so I was pretty much armed with relevant details to which only consumed my time.

As I explained I have a TRI-Boot which I had to explain to the rep and I was observing the GPU temps constantly and had the Lappy well trimed from the inside out, I always used it on a Laptop Cooler and had no excess files as I have 2 servers in my house which I leave all my files on.

Which all I was getting was, did I leave it on a bed, etc!! Blah..

Now, I stated that this was a known issue, as it is well documented all over the net, and the Vaio Rep said that they have no record on their systems, I suggested she use a thing called google and type in suggested words, though to no avail.

I have been on Club Vaio and one off the posters there with a similiar useless vaio has mentioned that I come here and post a case number so it could be used to wake up Sony in Brussels to this shambles.

Name: James Stapleton

Model: VGN-FZ18E

Case No: 3633842

Terribly sorry that I don't have the reps name, etc, as it was early this morning.

I was quoted £150 to get it collected for a diagnostic test, I'm laughing here as I fix pc's, modify them, etc! And paying that for something that is already confirmed!

No Way, I can get a new MOBO on Ebay for €260 from HK, though what would be the point if I be in the same boat this time next year.

I was going to take out everything, CPU, HD, etc and apply a hammer to it and have some fun, though a mate off mine here in Ireland suggested I take this to the small claims court, which I am going to do, it only cost's €15 to do so.

No PC should fail shortly after a year, God, I still have my first computer, which is a ZX81 which is 26 - 27 years old and it still works, now I would accept a failure after maybe 3 years or so, not 16 months...

Sorry for long post, and the Rant..

€1100 is way too much for disposable computing...

Thanks for listening..

James..

 

I called them now and they gave me the reference number to my recorded call. I'm not sure if that's my case number or not, but it should still say that I have a failed GPU if you pull up the number.

Case Number: e39497702
Date: 01/12/09
Time: 14:25
Customer Service Rep Name: Sorry
Model: FZ-190
Owner’s name: Oskar Bull-Hansen

 

Hi, thought I would post an update on my case.
I've now spoken with Sony many times, the last time they told me that they would take this higher, make a decision and call me back. Sony called me today and simply said that they now made the decision to not repair my computer for free, they were aware about the similar issues that Hp and Dell users had, but they still won't repair it.
So bye to Sony, won't buy another product from them again.

On the other hand, my computer is still for a check-up where i bought the computer, either they will say that the fault is mine or they will repair it without cost. This because in Sweden we have a 2 year manufacturers warranty. We'll see..

 

Really sorry to hear about that Jonas.

I think this will come back to bite Sony, I'm sure that they will be more failures reported in the coming months.

At least they acknowledged that other vendors have acknowledged the faults.

I will be like yourself, no more Sony and when family / friends come to me for advice on purchasing, a Vaio will certainly not be coming from my mouth.

Regards.

James.

 

The same sort of frustration exists on the Mac-related forums. Apple finally acknowledged the problem in October 2008 and added an additional year of warranty for the affected systems, however, many Apple customers fearful of the problem already had purchased Applecare (3 years of hardware support with no accidental damage coverage @ $349). Since the problem is only rectified by replacing the logic board and all the nVidia chips on the replacement boards potentially have the same issue, many, many customers want their Applecare extended.

With the affected Macbook Pro systems originally priced at $1800 - $3200 (before Applecare) you can imagine the frustration felt at owning one of these timebombs.

One of the realizations we should all come to is the problem actually lies with nVidia first. I own two Macbook Pros. The first was a Santa Rosa based systems with a beautiful LED screen but alas an nVidia 8600-based GPU. I bought the Applecare on my one year anniversary (the last day you can buy it) and the GPU failed 4 months later (would have been covered by Apple's support extension).

In addition, I purchased a used Macbook Pro with the older CPU and chipset but containing a ATI x1600 GPU as a fail-safe (I use the Mac for work)

The primary reason I bought this Sony FW290 CTO in December was to get a portable system to handle my Windows only programs and games. The main criteria was to have an ATI-based GPU. It will be a very, very long time before I trust a portable system with nVidia-based GPUs.

While Sonly should take care of its customers lets keep the focus on nVidia. If people refused to buy new laptops containing their GPUs, perhaps they might be more careful in the future.

Cheers,