Sony Viao VGNAR51M screen problems

Hi guys apologies in advance if this sort of query regarding my laptop has already been posted.

I'm just bascially looking for advice as wether the problems I'm now experiencing with this laptop is down to the known problems with the Nvidia GPU and if this is indeed the case could anyone advise on whether this laptop is part of the Sony recall?

I bought my son this Sony VGNAR51M laptop last April from Macro in Glasgow which has a Nvidia Geoforce 8400M GT graphics card and which has now developed a screen fault that I can only describe as similar to a television with very poor reception or a bad ariel.

You can see some stuff on the screen but obviously you couldn't work on it or use it for long periods I have however connected the laptop via it's HDMI port to a Panasonic plasma TV and the laptop works perfectly connected to the TV.

I think that there is some sort of loose connection inside the laptop or perhaps a dry joint on the MB or graphics card because after my son had told me that the laptop wasn't working (apparently it's been like this for a week but he is 21 and you know how they are at that age LOL) but when I carried it downstairs from his bedroom to the lounge it worked perfectly for about two minutes after it re-booted itself on opening but it's since gone back to the dodgy display thing and I can't get it to display properly now except when it's hooked up to the TV.

I contacted Macro last night who referred me to Sony's out of warranty call centre in Egypt which was worse than useless. They want me to send the laptop to them for inspection at a cost of £60 and then they'll tell me what's wrong with it and then charge me accordingly which is a bit much for an eighteen month old computer so I'm not going to go down that road.

I'm going to try to pursue Macro but I doubt I'll have much success with them as they are notoriously bad at CS so I would much rather get this thing sorted quickly with as little cost as possibly so if anyone could possibly point me in the right direction with regard to repair or replacement of the graphics card or suggest someone who might be able to effect a repair or direct me to a website where I might be able to do the repair myself I would be very grateful.

I'm quite handy but I know my limits and I also don't think I am prepared to spend loads of time or money on this problem but basically I just want my son to have his laptop working again but if needs be then he'll just have to use the work around of connecting to his TV until we manage to buy him a new cheaper laptop next year.

Thanks in advance for any replies/responses.

Regards.

Tony