Defective Nvidia chipsets in your current Vaio?

Hi everybody. Same problem here. Upping some extra pictures. Had it for 1 year and 2 months. Stopped working a month ago. I'm contacting Sony now. I'll keep you posted. This is insane. So many people are having the same problem and both HP, Dell and Apple are admitting the mistake. And Sony not? This shouldn't be possible for a company this size!

 

Man, that sucks. Hope you get your problems fixed. Good luck.

 

Hey! Those screens look familiar

This sucks...

 

Could someone tell me if i am affected, i have a Vaio VGN-AR51SU

My idle temp is 63°C

 

I'd say you've got one of the affected cards.

However - no ARs have failed ye I think.
Its now been 5 (max.6) FZs and 1 SZ I think....

 

Does anyone have an idea where I should send my complaint? I bought it on SonyStyle.com. The support is being retarded and I suspect they don't read my emails.

And how many of us have faulty VAIOs like me?

 

Well this sucks majorly, but thank god for my extended warranty. Can the motherboard be replaced onsite?

 

Thorpemark reported their AR as defective: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=268277&page=29

 

I have started a petition here: ipetitions.com/petition/vaioproblem/ (couldn't upload url's yet so please just copy paste in your browser)

Will everyone with this problem please sign here? I'll send this to Sony when I get some signatures.

 

I encourage EVERYONE with the affected chip to sign this petition even if your machine has not had a failure. It is important for Sony to hear from as many of us as possible.

Gary

 

Thanks for the support, ScuderiaConchiglia. And post the link anywhere else anyone might be interested in signing. And leaving comments is really good too. Let's do this!

 

I actually left a comment but it didn't show up!

Gary

 

I just had a long conversation with Sony (costumer relations department) and they said that since they had no official recall from nVidia, they couldn't give free repairs. He very kindly offered the $699 repairs and said that maybe I should take this up with nVidia. If I'm not mistaken, that's not going to lead to anything, right?

 

You can always try - although sadly you are possibly right, you wont get far...

You could also try some trick like saying you have talked to a (your) lawyer, bla bla bla... but I doubt it'll get you anywhere... although it would be interesting to see the result.

 

I'm really sorry to hear that Sony said that. It is really very unfortunate for us Vaio owners who have the "potentially defective" GPUs.

 

But according to this Nvidia HAS issued a recall:

http://www.uberpulse.com/us/2008/08...he_chip_recall_impeccable_but_messy_video.php

But then I see in other places that maybe it has not OFFICIALLY recalled the chips.

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/dell-extends-wa.html

Confused.

Gary

 

OK - but: Is the recal backdated? i.e. is it valid for old chips manufactured before the date the recal was issued?

 

Reading BOTH links in my reply, I am not sure if there is or is not an actual recall. It looks like Nvidia wanted to do a recall, but the notebook manufacturers did not, since they would have been the one to incur most of the costs.

Gary

 

Ok...

Well, I think we can do little but wait and possibly keep bugging them about it (in a civilized way)

 

From what I understand there is no recourse directly with Nvidia unless you purchased your [hardware] directly from them. They stated (link was a couple of pages back somewhere) that it was actually the OEMs that have pressured them into the non-disclosure stance they've taken.

Since that statement some of the major OEMs (HP, Dell, Apple, etc..) have (on their own) come forward to acknowledge the problem and offer some sort of remedy. This was handled on a case by case scenario until the volume of people reporting issues/negative press grew to a point where it simply couldn't be ignored any more.

I would urge anyone with a Vaio (with suspected GPU issues on any one of the confirmed models) to NOT pay for this out of pocket. If you cave in this gets chalked up as a normal repair and will most likely not be counted as a defective unit.

At this point the only recourse for non-cooperative OEMs is a legal one. If it reaches class action status this will become easier for everyone and you won't have to waste time arguing on the phone with their support. If you're affected you should have already written in a formal complaint about the issue to their executives. (If you don't already know how to write a good complaint letter please see this article):

How To Launch An Executive Email Carpet Bomb

It's easy for your complaint to become lost through their phone/email tech support. You'll have a greater chance at reaching a solution if this goes right to the top.

 

So they're basically trying to push the blame on each other. Sony won't recall unless they get an official report from nVidia and nVidia won't give an official report until Sony gives them permission. Very clever...

Couldn't find any e-mail support for nVidia, strangely enough... Anyone knows if there is one out there?

 

Unfortunately, this is what businesses are all about.

 

Care to comment on how that explains Dell, HP and Apple's stance on this?

Gary

 

Dell, HP, and Apple are US companies. Sony is an Asian (or Japan to be specific) company. The way US companies and Asian companies do businesses are different. I'm referring to the structure, culture, mentality, mission, etc. You just have to live in both continents to really experience and understand what it is all about. In my opinion, the way they all handle this Nvidia issue probably highlight this difference.

 

You probably should have said that in the first place. Your initial statement was painting with a rather broad brush.

Gary

 

finally now i know why my vaio is broken, i have vgn fz190 that is now 2 weeks out of the warranty period. i'm having the green lines problem etc.... Sony is refusing to take care of it. The customer service suggest that i get a recovery disk, And i suggest that it wasn't a software issue. I have an ample knowledge about computers and knew it was a bunch of bs that the "tech" was feeding me. To get the computer repaired it would cost 99 dollars just to get diagnosed. Minimum 279 for "minor" repairs and 699 for major repairs. Why should we have to put up for this repair expense when this is obviously a manufacturer defect! I have done nothing but take great care of this laptop even purchased a cooling pad since day one.

I apologize but I'm glad that i'm not the only person that is experiencing this problem. now i have somewhere i can vent!

 

had my vaio fz 190 for 1 year and 2 months. Stopped working 2 weeks ago. The laptop got so hot it fried. The power button doesnt even respond anymore. Now i read this topic to see that sony put faulty hardware in my laptop and they want me to play 700 dollars to have it repaired? i mean come one.

+1 on the list of those who got owned

 

Fact: Nvdia 8400/8600 is defective. It's used by Hp, Apple, Dell and Sony in their laptops. Hp, Apple, and Dell has came forward and acknowledged the problem. On the other hand, sony said that their laptop, which uses the same graphics chip as Hp, Dell and Apple, is NOT defective. Common!

Is it really hard to extend the warranty for 2 years at least? If indeed sony believes that their laptops are not affected (no matter how impossible it my seem), then extending the warranty should be fine. If they are so confident that no GPU will be busted what's in it for them, right?

Everytime I hear someone report a defective vaio with an nvdia chip, I got nervous. Also, that all reports here are mostly FZs. If sony doesn't do anything about this issue and when my FZ suffered the same fate as the others (which I hope not), I swear this will be my LAST vaio. There are always other brands out there which treats their customer better. What good is a great product if the customer support sucks? Something for the others to think about.

From experience, Dell, Hp has always provided better customer support. I had a toshiba but haven't used/needed the customer support yet.

 

Taking this up with nVidia is Sony's job, not yours. If they are interested in keeping any of their customers, that is.

 

granted that sony is an asian company that doesn't mean that they handle business any different than US companies. The sony USA corp has to abid by same the US consumer laws as HP, DELL, and APPLE. When a corp is as big as sony and hold as that much market capital they are under than same scrutiny as any other big corp. I think once enough people have complaint about the problem with the chipset sony will issues a repair. Because they are extending their warranties in the outlet from 3 month to one year, it has to due to the number of units being returned.

Everyone with a malfunctioning chipset should call the customer support and go through the hell of "is your computer charged" "did you change the os system" and request a work order even if you computer is out of warranty this way they have a documented work of these crappy chipsets and maybe they'll stand up and do something about it.

 

Sure, it is not hard to extend the warranty. The main problem right now is that Sony is maintaining that the GPUs used in their Vaios are not defective. They are not extending the warranty because if they do, it contradict with what they're defending as it will mean that they have admitted that the GPUs in the Vaios are faulty, which unfortunately at this point, it is obvious that they are not willing to admit.

 

The way I see it, Sony are winning the "war" regarding their stance on the GPUs used in their Vaios not being faulty.

Why, you would say? Problem is that right now as things stand, if your Vaio's GPU fails, you're out of wearranty, & you want it repaired by Sony, you'll have to pay up. Are most of those people willing to do so (for like $699 or more)?

The answer is NO. Most people in this situation will end up abandoning their damaged Vaios & buy a new laptop. So if you really want Sony to admit and have those affected people do what you're saying so that Sony can see the severity of the issue, then they'll all have to be willing to pay for the repair as of now. Only then will enough records of failed GPUs pile up.

Yes, I feel for people who feel betrayed having to pay for the repair but once enough cases are documented, then Sony may admit the GPU issue and do what Apple is doing & even refund the people who pay for the repair that falls under this issue.

This is definitely UNFORTUNATE, but at the moment (& the way I see it), affected people have to "play" their part by paying up for the repair so that we all can fight for Sony to admit the issue.

* The receipt of payment for the repair will turn out to be very useful evidence in any future class action cases and so on....

 

Just an update on my adventures to get my FZ180E/B repaired. A number of posts back, I shared my problems with my FZ's Nvidia GPU (same as the rest, graphic artifacts and different colored lines on the screen). Getting nowhere with Sony as far as free repair, I went after our Military Exchange (AAFES/BX/PX) and their Sony sales rep there. I sent them a scathing complaint letter (including involving our Inspector General to conduct fraud/unethical practices due to their selling VAIO's with defective parts, etc.) and got a response from the manager and the Head Sony sales rep. The Sony sales rep agreed to have my FZ repaired "under warranty" (although its 15 months old and out of warranty). The 1st time I received it back, the same problem came back 4 days later. Gave it back to the rep and waited another 10 days. Its still working as of this post and crossing my fingers that it doesn't crap out on me too soon... Of course, I realized that even with the free repair deal I got, I don't deserve to be constantly afraid of when my $2000 VAIO will break on me again. I mean, we still have a 7-yr old $1000 Presario laptop that still works! How can a supposedly top-of-the-line brand be this bad? The problem is, they said they couldn't put a different GPU in there since its integrated into the motherboard when I asked about it. They do not acknowledge the defect, by the way. All they is that "they've replaced the whole motherboard" and shouldn't be a problem anymore. I also realized no matter how upset I got, that these lower level reps really have their hands tied without the green light from Sony's top executives to acknowledge the issue. They probably just got worried that I might make more noise and cause them to lose their military account. I am, obviously, still about to make more noise. I've been compiling articles, etc., that relates to the NVIDIA problem so I can forward to our Inspector General with the intent of forcing our BX/PX to acknowledge that there are VAIO's out there bought by our military service men and women and families that are about to crap out (probably won't use that phrase, lol) or may already have... and that neither Sony nor AAFES have done anything about. All the while knowing there is defective video component (at the very least since I
notified them). We're talking about members out deployed in the war zones relying on their VAIO to stay in touch with their families and well,
maybe a little work to take back to their bunkers (yeah, right). I included the sites I found some of those articles in. There are more but I'm trying to
get the ones that are more mainstream like Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Apple and Dell sites, etc. I hope they're still there, but I printed them out.
Maybe its time for us all to send information to the Federal Trade Commission, BBB, and our state representatives? What do you think?


Well, I guess not, the forum won't let me post the sites. If you'd like them, email me at majleonj@yahoo


V/r
majleonj

 

You now have 15 posts - you can now post links as far as I'm aware.

Good to hear you are puting pressure on Sony, and that Sony did give you a free repair.

 

Of course he got a free repair. Sony wouldn't dare to mess with the US Military.

 

I've been enjoying this forum since I bought my Sony vaio vgn-fz285u in january of this year.

Last friday I was greeted with a green and blue, pixelated screen. And eventually no display and no power.

It is on it's way to Sony service in San Diego, Ca

I'll post the results

 

Lol, I wish that were the case with all my Sony purchases! Shock and Awe? I think the sales rep was just worried about losing his commissions at the bases here in Japan...

Here are those links btw:

Apple Support Site:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2377

Dell Support:
http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/25/nvidia-gpu-update-for-dell-laptop-owners.aspx

CNET News:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10000910-64.html

Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122368809304225247.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121910081640451139.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121859523254035725.html

Reuters News
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS113303+03-Sep-2008+PRN20080903
http://search.us.reuters.com/rsearch/rcomSearch.do?blob=nvidia chip defect&WTmodLoc=ussrch-top-quote

 

Hey guys. Ive read the first few pages of this post and the last few and am wondering if my VGN-AR750 is affected by this. It does use the 8600M Gt. I game fairly heavily and am not looking forward to a failing GPU. Do i have anything to worry about in my laptop? G84M A2 Idles around 50-53 C. My GPU memory clock and core clock dont look anything like the ones ive seen on here. Mine seem to be a lot higher so maybe I don't have the same chipset?

Memory 702
Core 475

Thank you for your input.

 

First post.

Well, about fourteen months ago I got a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ11L, with a GeForce 8400M GT, and for thirteen months and three weeks of that time it ran perfectly and did everything I asked of it. I had noticed the infamous TDR screen flicker as nvlddmkm.sys was recovered, but it was minor, tended to happen only once on startup, and actually stopped altogether for many months when I updated my drivers.

All was well and good until last week when I updated drivers to play some new games and the problem came back. Worse. Until my laptop started freezing altogether and had to be powered down. Then, when turned on again, it would fail to boot 80-90% of the time. When it did boot it began to work again, until today, when it crashed the instant I tried to play a video file. It's sitting beside me currently in Safe Mode, so that I can copy every valuable file from the hard drive to my local network, because I am pretty sure it is days (if that) from dying completely. I haven't yet contacted Sony support, but I am not looking forward to it.

Finding this thread (and accompanying news articles) was simultaneously very relieving (because the problem appears to be widespread) and very distressing (because I am out of warranty, and literally cannot afford to foot the bill for a repair, not that I should have to).

Ho-hum.

 

Hi, Shake Appeal and welcome to the crowd.

Sorry to hear about your computer. I went through the same and can only start "normally" after uninstalling the my 8400m GT. Now I'm using the, like, 10 mb video card as my primary. Sucks. Join us and sign this petition to send to Sony: ipetitions.com/petition/vaioproblem/

 

how do you uninstall the gpu? do you disable it some how in the bios?

 

I think it should be possible to uninstall it in Safemode... I formatted mine so I'm not sure. If not, maybe find the drivers manually and delete them. Sorry. I'm not an expert.

 

well might as well join the crowd, after my newbish mistake to open a new thread (thanks DetlevCM)

i have a Go7600 that just packed up a couple of days back.Sony uk demands £700 for a motherboard change or £400+ if it's just a gpu replacement. From what i get it requires motherboard replacement, which of course i am not willing to pay. When i tried the angle with the sony rep with regards to faulty nvidia i got the generic response that it will be higly unlikely that i will get a free repair or at least a discounted repair.

For now my laptop and the cute red-blue-green display i get serves better as an 80's disco lavalike strobo.

Sure i ll buy vaio again in the future./sarcasm

 

For those of you who would like to carefully monitor the temp of the GPU and be warned when it reaches a threshold you determine, the latest version of SpeedFan supports Nvidia chips. Previous versions did not show the GPU temps on my FZ190. The newest release does!!!

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Gary

 

How do you format it? if i can disable the gpu and than the laptop works than i can show that its the gpu that is defective and i have a better argument to try to make a case out of it. If i could get into window using safe........

 

If you enter Safe Mode (press F8 on startup), it automatically starts up without the nVidia video card drivers and will then you can see if the problem is the classic nVidia video card problem. From there, maybe you can search for the nVidia drivers (find their names on google) manually and delete them. Formatting is a hassle and I just did it cause I have another laptop available.

 

Interesting. So the Nvidia 7600 is now included as part of the faulty GPU issues that Nvidia themselves admitted?

 

I wouldn't be able to base it just on my case, even though i 've read a couple of people with the same card within this thread that also reported "broken" GPU's. Truth is that i ve used the laptop for almost 2 years, if more, while doing all sort of stuff including gaming. Up to a week ago i didnt have any problems, other than the extreme temperatures that i noticed while gaming. But being a newb with this stuff it never crossed my mind to run a temperature test and diagnose extreme temperatures.

What gets to me though is Sony's responce and repair costs when i did mention the issue and tried making a case out of the defective Nvidia's. I mean if there is a known issue, even if my card is not 100% guaranteed that it is defective,i would make sure that i would drop the charges regarding repairs of the said issue.

BTW an article at insidetech.com (no2748 that i cannot link cause of my post count) talks about defective cards of 7xxx and 6xxx also.

 

Point is though - if I'm not mistaken extreme temperatures per se aren't responsible for the problem. Its temperature differences on the chip and temperature change.

By the way - no official word from Sony in a Sony Centre... asked today...

 

Isn't this weak material stuff that results in faulty Nvidia GPUs "exclusively" on Nvidia 8400 & 8600 only? When does it include Nvidia 7600?