Sony comes clean on faulty 8XXX series Nvidia Chips!

It took a long time but apparently Sony has had a change of heart on the issue of the faulty Nvidia chips in various models of VAIO's. They are now acknowledging the issue. They are offering to extend our warranties on the Nvidia portion of the machines to three years.


USA:
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/news-item.pl?mdl=VGNFZ190N&news_id=349
Canada:
http://www.sony.ca/view/814.htm
Japan:
http://vcl.vaio.sony.co.jp/support/info/2009/028.html

The are also offering reimbursement for anyone who has already paid for the repairs.

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/support-info.pl?info_id=489

(I decided to start a new thread on this in hopes that some folks who, out of frustration, have stopped looking at the other threads might see this and avail themselves of the offer.)

Gary

 

"A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."

 

At least they care about customers, Samsung doesn't give a f.. about that issue. But well few days ago I wanted to buy new LCD, my first choice was Samsung but after quick look at my dead Samsung R70 I went with Sony LCD...

 

Sony should send Nvidia the bills!

 

So Sony Japan, USA had acknowledged the problem...so as Sony Europe (read a post in Club VAIO yesterday)
But what about Sony AP? or Asia models are not affected

 

The costs get shared.

John

 

Finally, now my FZ4000 is covered. The list is surprisingly short, though -- it seems to be limited to 8400M GT only?

--
EDIT: weird, the list of graphics card affected (click the link to on how to identify your graphic card on the support page) is much longer, yet the models affected are only LT, FZxx, & AR. What happens to SZ?

 

i noticed that the 9xxx series cards are absent from the list on the sony support page. are the 9xxx series safe or did sony just not sell any products with those cards?

 

My wife's SZ 1 year warranty was over 5 months ago. I can't even find my invoice. Will they cover from the manufacturing date?

EDIT: Didn't read everything here. Like Skyshade said, is the SZ not covered?

 

The SZ is not covered under the 3 year warranty extension. May be not many SZ's have failed due to the defective GPU's.

 

You can add this link Gary
http://genesis.sony-europe.com/instranet/ccil_sony/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=35880
I am happy to see it, it says 4 years from the date of purchase, means for me over 3 years. Since FZ was last model with s video out, so can use it till HD will become new standard for live video and that will be at least 2,3 years more.

 

aviray,

The link doesn't seem to do anything.

Gary

 

yes, I know sent it to a friend and she has same problem. It took several minutes till it appeared on my display. Sony cant even get their websites properly done.
I copied the text and saved as word doc, just in case, after all it is value of 700€ .

 

I guess not enough since SZs generally cost more so they obviously have fewer out there than the other models that are listed, hence, more failures in the other models.

 

FZ with Nvidia 8400M GT has an HDMI out which can output 1080P video.

 

Whoa now, everyone please chill out. The forum software has definitely been a little odd recently, just little bugs...apparently this is another one.

I'm going to try something with the forum software. Either I'll end up fixing this in a minute, or I'll end up bringing down all the forums for a bit. Let's see what happens .

EDIT: Well, I did not crash the forums but I did crash my web browser. If any description of any of the notebooks are bad, please PM me which description is wrong and please use the notebook's name as the title of the PM. I'll confirm the details on Sony's website and alter the linker tool to reflect the changes.

 

Thanks alot man, WOW i have a Sony Vaio AR520 that has a 8400 GT and if you ask me this is a straight lowball......they support the AR1,AR2,AR3, and not the 5? Ridiculous.

 

It is great to hear that Sony is finally doing something to the faulty Nvidia GPUs.

However, I feel sorry for those Vaio FZ owners who sold their broken notebooks (some being parted out) for cheap earlier when they encountered this Nvidia GPU problem & Sony did not want to fix it for them for free. I would be very mad if I'm one of them.... This does makes me wonder who had the "genius" foresight to predict this & snap up some of those "broken" Vaio FZs for cheap!

 

Now that this little forum issue has been fixed (thanks Greg), I removed several posts that were related to that and didn't add anything to the thread. As Greg said, if you see this issue popping up again elsewhere, please either report the post or PM a moderator and we'll handle it from there.

Thanks for understanding.

 

Looks like the link works only if you visit the Sony support page before,
Also below official instruction to read the info on Sony Europe- applies to all European countries.

1.go to your support page
http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/flash/hub_cons.html
select your country / language.
2. use the link (can be same or new tab but it will work only if you visited Sony support of select country , before, as described)
http://genesis.sony-europe.com/instranet/ccil_sony/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=35880
The page will open and it will be automatically in language of support page previously selected
P.S.
@coolguy
Rajeshbhay maafkijiye

 

Unfortunately my SZ failed on the stamina/speed graphic switching while the remaining hardware work properly.
I called the sony service centre just now and they said SZ is not the covered model

 

That sucks man. My wife got the SZ specifically so she could use both the nVidia and the onboard video but we've only been using the onboard video since this whole fiasco was uncovered. Now, I can't even find the invoice even if Sony owns up on it.

 

Please note that only newer SZs with Geforce 8 are affected. Older SZ with Geforce 7 are not affected.

 

Exactly. However, they're not covered under the extended warranty; I'm having a 8400M GS

 

So, I'm not the only one whose SZ GPU has failed... I have a 8400M GS also on my SZ780 and the speed mode died on me several hours ago.

Sony DOES NOT COME CLEAN on faulty Nvidia Chips!

 

IMHO, for those Vaio SZ notebook owners whose Nvidia 8400 GPUs have failed, just contact Sony & at the minimum have them take down your issue into their system even if you do not want to ship to them & pay them for repair. This way, the more such cases are being reported & collected in the Sony repair/service data system, the more likely, Sony will have no choice but to include the Vaio SZ as one of those affected systems in the near future.

I also humbly advice the Vaio SZ notebook owners to keep hold of your "broken" notebooks, so that you can get the free repair when Sony finally include the Vaio SZ as one of the affected systems.

Good luck.

 

Not again, forum software messed up Speed's post...

 

I fixed that auto-link. Thanks for reporting it, Gary (I know you're watching ).

 

Your issue really sounded to me like it was related to your OS upgrade. If it was working fine before you upgraded and then things stopped working as soon as you upgraded to W7 then that seems like a likely cause of your problem.
May be it might not be though.
Other owners have been having this problem.

Anyway, i'm glad that Sony is finally doing something about this. It is a little late for some people as they've already parted with their laptops and bought new ones. The low SZ faliure is down to probably most SZ owners not using the dedicated card very much. I've only used mine about 2 times in around 16 months.

 

I just called this afternoon and it was really quite a painless phone call, just have your laptop with you so you can give the person on the phone the service tag numbers and make sure they have the right address and the shipping box will be on the way in a couple of days. Or you can drop the laptop off at any Sony Style store. I just had my box shipped to me. You should get your laptop back in about 7 to 10 days. My FZ will be off as soon as the box comes in and I will let you guys know how long it takes before I get it back in my hands.

 

I did upgrade/downgrade the laptop OS to Win7 x64/Win2k3 x64 before but I can never get the NVIDIA to work (I'm not sure if NVIDIA was working in Vista last time since I just took it back (from my brother who is a computer noob) and format the HDD).

In order to confirm this failure, I spent the efforts by looking into all sorts of software problems and finally, recovering all settings to original factory default (I should have done this step first). One good thing by doing so was that it confirmed it was a hardware failure instead of a software problem. I'll probably wait and see how Sony respond to my issue (called them to report on such failure immediately I identified the problem with the Sony technicians).

 

I agree with SPEEDwithJJ. Fellow SZ users w/ G84xx GPU, pls contact Sony in case you are facing the similar failure

 

Everyone knows this is how companies think. Plus this was a great movie!

 

I have a question! I bought a fz180e and it is infact one of these laptops with defective nvidia chips. For now it is working with no problem, but it gets extremely hot and the bluray/DVD drive has stopped working! it can't read any cd! I believe that this happened due to extream heat! do you thing that the extended warranty will take care of this problem also?

 

No, the extended warranty is ONLY for the Nvida portion of the machne.

Gary

 

Yes! Getting the FZ repaired will clear up the notebook getting hot, and it should clear up the drive from not working as well. When sending the machine in for repair, the Sony rep asks you if there are in another issues wrong with the machine that were associated with the Nvidia issue.

Well I got my shipper box on Tuesday, filled out the paperwork inside the box; the paperwork did not ask for any of this but I included it anyway (a copy of my original receipt and a copy of the Sony news alert on the repair). The laptop went by way of FedEx Next Day Air to San Diego courtesy of Sony, of course. It arrive in San Deigo the next morning at 10:16am.


I got a phone call from Sony friday afternoon informing me that they did receive my laptop and that repairs have begun and that I should expect another phone call from the technician when the repairs are complete.

The laptop has been out of my hands for a total of 4 days now since I shipped it off to Sony. I will keep you guys updated on the progress.

 

I have a SZ6. This is complete ****. If the problem is with the graphics card and I have the exact same graphics card as someone with a different model laptop, then why the **** dont I qualify for the warranty. ugh

Fortunately my laptop's symptoms are relatively light. The computer is incredibly hot most of the time, but the only major problems is when I play games.

After a few hours of playing the computer will all of a sudden power off abruptly. Then when I turn it on again I just get a screen saying windows did not shut down properly and asking if i want to boot normally or in safe mode.

Now im worried that even if i somehow convince sony to take a look at it the lazy repair techs wont test it long enough so that it wont abruptly shut off on them.


But this is the same problem that everyone else is experiencing right?

 

No it is nothig at all like the issue being discussed in this thread. Read through the thread and you will see this is about issues with the video chip. Oh wait, its right there in the title of the thread!

Gary

 

It only happens when im doing graphics card intensive things. ive done things where the cores are running at max for long periods of time but not the video card and that doesnt result in any problems. so im pretty sure it has to do with the video chip. i googled a variety of terms that essentially were "sony" sz" "abruptly" "powers off" and only found stuff related to this problem so i figured mine might be related.

if you dont think its my video card what component would you suggest is messed up? ive read many threads about the problem you are experiencing as well as this one in their entirety. problem is that most users simply discuss the underlying source of the problem and do not discuss the symptoms in detail. most people say their computer is broke or doesnt work. hence my attempt at clarification.

 

The issue with the Nvidia chips is not one where the system suddenly powers off. The issue is where the chip fails and there are all sorts of lines and distortions on the display or the driver constantly throws a blue screen of death. But not the sudden power down issue you are having. If you are not gettting lines or a BSOD, you have some other issue.

Gary

 

i see. thanks for clearing that up with more explanation.

 

Okay guys here is the update. I received an e-mail Monday saying that a part was backordered and they will let me know when they receive the part. Well Wednesday I get an e-mail from FedEx saying that a package is on the way from Sony 2nd day air.

So I get the laptop this afternoon and it's been plugged in now for about 4 hours and I think Sony fixed the problem. The laptop gets warm but it is nowhere near the hot to the touch levels were it was before. The repair sheet says that the whole motherboard was replaced.

The laptop was out of my hands for a total of 2 weeks or 10 working days, from the time I dropped it off at FedEx to the time it was delivered at my door. So I am happy with Sony again and that they fixed my laptop and I have 2 more years warranty on it.

 

Hi

I have FZ11S, when you start the laptop, the Vaio screen comes on for just a second and then display is almost black. When connected to the TV through HDMI port the windows is displayed on the TV and the laptop works fine. The bottom laptop gets exteremly hot.

Is this due to the faulty Nvidia Chip?

If not can What could be wrong with the laptop?

 

Yes. I would call the toll free number and talk to the Representive over the phone and they can walk you throught the process of getting the laptop repaired. But my laptop before it got repaired was super hot to the touch also, almost to the point where it would actually burn you if you left your hand there long enough.

 

Doubtful that the Nvidia chip problem being discussed here is the culprit. If it were the chip it would most likely show problems on the LCS and the HDMI port. But contact Sony to be sure.

Gary

 

The 9 series is safe.

 

Well, after emailed Sony for months for the SZ series issue, this is what I get:

With regards to your concern, please know that we have also explored the possibility that the SZ series is included in this issue. However, the SZ series does not suffer the same problems due to the notebook was made with a different design from the rest. Therefore, the SZ series will not be included until further notice.

However, if you have encountered any problems with the NVIDIA graphics card, please feel free to bring the notebook to our service center for inspection.

It seems they'd no idea about the problem lying behind -- the chip itself is faulty and whatsoever design can do really little to prevent its failure. Looks like it is very unlikely to have SZ series to be included in the extended-warranty list at the moment.

 

Not sure it is "unlikely", as this is almost word for word what they said about all the models before they did an about face and decided to extend the warranty on certain models. I would not give up just yet.

Gary

 

I am having the same video problems that everyone has been having, so I contacted Sony and they had me ship my FZ290 to them. I just got a call from the repair tech and he said he can't reproduce the problem and will not replace anything at this time???? Are people experiencing the video problem immediately or randomly? I asked them to keep it a few more days to insure it is not happening anymore. But I know as soon as I get it back, it will happen again at some point.....not very happy with Sony right now. The recall notice doesn't state anything about the problem happening immediately. I have the exact laptop model and the exact video chip in question, yet they won't fix it unless they can make it happen????

 

My gpu finally has decided to jump ship (FZ290 CTO). Called Sony, they're actually sending a tech to my house to repair it early next week. Not bad. They also said that the entire motherboard will be replaced as well. I'll post after the repair and report how it goes.