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    Sony Z black screen (and sometimes BSOD) every couple hours

    Discussion in 'VAIO / Sony' started by the_obvious, Jan 8, 2011.

  1. the_obvious

    the_obvious Notebook Enthusiast

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    My one month old Sony Vaio Z series VPCZ112GX has been having some BSODs but mostly just completely stopping with a black screen and some white flickers every couple of hours. It happens at anytime - when I'm playing a game, browsing the web, or just listening to music. There are no triggers that I can tell.

    One thing I noticed was that the graphics light would always switch to stamina when in speed mode when the crash occurred. This makes me think it could be a graphics card problem.

    I've done a complete fresh reinstall of W7 x64 and reinstalled all drivers, but it still occurs. I've also installed the updated Nvidia driver. I'm starting to think that it is a hardware based issue and that its time to take it to Sony.

    But any insight or ideas as to what could be the problem would be greatly appreciated!

    Thanks!

    Joel
     
    the_obvious, Jan 8, 2011
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  2. Negaiido

    Negaiido Notebook Consultant

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    Did you try to install the newest NVidia drivers of this forum ? The topic about hybrid graphics has newer drivers then the official. If they dont fix it I do think it's a hardware problem.

    PS: Does the problem occur with both speed and stamina?
     
    Negaiido, Jan 8, 2011
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  3. the_obvious

    the_obvious Notebook Enthusiast

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    I've tried it with the latest official drivers. I suppose I can try the community built ones. But yeah, I think it's a hardware problem.

    Yeah both in speed and stamina.

    Cheers,

    Joel
     
    the_obvious, Jan 8, 2011
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  4. pyr0

    pyr0 100% laptop dynamite

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    Try to boot with a linux live cd or bootcd (I strongly recommend hiren's boot cd, since it comes equipped with a variety of testing, benchmark and hardware diagnostics tools). If crashes still keep occuring, you can be 99,99% sure it is a hardware issue. Also try to reset bios settings to defaults.

    Hardware-wise I would suggest first change RAM modules (if you have two installed, take out one of them first and then the other) It is quite unlikely that BOTH of them have defects. If so, you can even take a step further and purchase (with return policy) ddr3-modules to test if it works then.

    If all that fails, it seems to be either some issues with SSD/CPU/GPU/Motherboard which in the case of the Z will probably require service through sony (SSD is proprietar, CPU+GPU is soldered onto Mobo).

    Good luck!
     
    pyr0, Jan 8, 2011
    #4