Sony Vaio FZ21Z Graphics Driver Problem

I own a Sony Vaio FZ21Z and have recently been having some display problems. I put on a film which I do a lot and after a while of watching it the screen began to stagger and go completely black (though I could still hear the film) and I was forced to restart.

When I restarted I was greeted with the following screens:







After many more restarts I was finally able to get on. According to Vista's "Problem Reports and Solutions" the issue was with my graphics driver which I agree with since I am always able to get on when I boot into Safe Mode. So I completely uninstalled the driver, ran driver sweeper to remove all trace of it and installed a different driver.

But as soon as I did anything that put the graphics card under any strain such as playing a game, watching a film etc the screen went black and I when I restarted I got the pictures shown above.

After various more attempts of fixing the driver I decided that enough is enough and I did a fresh reinstall of Windows (Formatted the hard drive), downloaded the originally installed drivers off Sony Vaio's website, installed them and all appeared to be well.

But after a few hours guess what happened: The screen went black and I got the pictures shown above. I did not install anything except the original drivers and utilities I got from Sony Vaio's website after reinstalling Windows.

I am a complete loss as to what could be causing this (I contacted Sony Vaio via e-mail but they take a while to reply so I though I might aswell try and get assistance from other places) In there first response they told me to:

1.Go to the start menu
2. In the Start Search bar please type; Device Manager
3. In the list of programs you will find Device Manager, please click on the program to open.
4. In the device manager locate Display adapters.
5. Press the + symbol beside the to expand.
6. Next right click on the device and choose uninstall.
7. Restart the computer to reinstall the device.


Then download the update from the link below:

http://support.vaio.sony.co.uk/down...VID-01587600-UN.exe&ip=NVDVID-01587600-UN.htm

But that did not do anything to help. Also I was already using that same method to uninstall the driver earlier on in case you were wondering.

I am at a complete loss as to what is wrong and I hope that someone on here can help me.

 

You have an Nvidia video chip, right? If so the chip itself has died. There are many threads here about the issue, use the "Search this forum" box and look for Nvidia. The only fix for this is a $600 motherboard swap. It is a known defect on the Nvidia part, but Sony refuses to acknowledge this defect. HP, Dell and Apple have all had the same issues and extended warranties but only Sony refuses to do anything about it. Sorry.

Gary