Sony has admitted that faulty Nvidia graphics chips are causing havoc for some Vaio laptop owners.
The Japanese electronics giant said the problem dates back to July 2008, when Nvidia announced that some notebooks fitted with unspecified versions of its graphics processors were “failing in the field at a higher than normal rate …
In July 2008, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged a failure associated with some of their graphics processors (GPU) due to a manufacturing defect in the graphics chip packaging. At that time Sony and NVIDIA jointly investigated whether VAIO models equipped with this GPU were impacted by this issue. This investigation revealed that the issue had not occurred in such VAIO models.
However, after closely monitoring the situation, Sony has now determined that a very small percentage of VAIO computers with the NVIDIA graphics chips may be affected.
These PCs may exhibit distorted video, random characters or a blank screen due to a failure of the NVIDIA graphics chip.
Resolution
As a part of our commitment to quality, for any customer who requires repair of their VAIO computer due to the NVIDIA graphics processor issue, Sony will cover the cost of repair (parts and labor) at no charge during the first four years following the date of purchase of the models in question (see list below).
In case your model is shown in the list below, we invite you to contact VAIO Support to arrange service for your VAIO.
Just scrapped a Vaio LM - everyone agreed that the motherboard was dead and needed to be replaced! Cost too bloody much to repair, bought another laptop, now I find that Sony may have fixed it for free...I hate Sony....Bastards
not sure if you know this, but the TX line of HP's tablet pc's have an annoying habit of dying just after the years guarantee is up? (my TX1340EA went after about 19 months)..
from what i can gather, it's a design fault, inasmuch as the heatsink doesn't sit tightly enough on the gpu, so over time, it heats up so much that it loosens the solder around it and yer graphics go..
also, somewhat bizarrly, just prior to this yer wireless goes kaput as well..
atm, HP are not taking ownership of this problem and it's making a lot of people mad!
Register
Sony coughs to faulty Vaio notebooks
Sony has admitted that faulty Nvidia graphics chips are causing havoc for some Vaio laptop owners. The Japanese electronics giant said the problem dates back to July 2008, when Nvidia announced that some notebooks fitted with unspecified versions of its graphics processors were “failing in the field at a higher than normal rate …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Wednesday 12th August 2009 15:05 GMT
elpaw
Sony took it's time #
Dell has been offering warranty extensions for this issue for well over a year. I have already had it affect me on my XPS M1330
Posted Wednesday 12th August 2009 17:17 GMT
MarkOne
re: Sony took it's time #
In July 2008, NVIDIA publicly acknowledged a failure associated with some of their graphics processors (GPU) due to a manufacturing defect in the graphics chip packaging. At that time Sony and NVIDIA jointly investigated whether VAIO models equipped with this GPU were impacted by this issue. This investigation revealed that the issue had not occurred in such VAIO models.
However, after closely monitoring the situation, Sony has now determined that a very small percentage of VAIO computers with the NVIDIA graphics chips may be affected.
These PCs may exhibit distorted video, random characters or a blank screen due to a failure of the NVIDIA graphics chip.
Resolution
As a part of our commitment to quality, for any customer who requires repair of their VAIO computer due to the NVIDIA graphics processor issue, Sony will cover the cost of repair (parts and labor) at no charge during the first four years following the date of purchase of the models in question (see list below).
In case your model is shown in the list below, we invite you to contact VAIO Support to arrange service for your VAIO.
Posted Wednesday 12th August 2009 17:17 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Better than Apple #
At first they flat out refused to repair my iBook's logic board (which failed outside warranty due to a well-documented GPU soldering problem).
Then when they finally did relent (after months of argument), the repair only carried a piffling 3 month warranty!
Posted Wednesday 12th August 2009 17:17 GMT
Small Wee Jobbie
Great.....Nice one Sony #
Just scrapped a Vaio LM - everyone agreed that the motherboard was dead and needed to be replaced! Cost too bloody much to repair, bought another laptop, now I find that Sony may have fixed it for free...I hate Sony....Bastards
Posted Wednesday 12th August 2009 22:41 GMT
b 3
not only sony.. #
hi,
not sure if you know this, but the TX line of HP's tablet pc's have an annoying habit of dying just after the years guarantee is up? (my TX1340EA went after about 19 months)..
from what i can gather, it's a design fault, inasmuch as the heatsink doesn't sit tightly enough on the gpu, so over time, it heats up so much that it loosens the solder around it and yer graphics go..
also, somewhat bizarrly, just prior to this yer wireless goes kaput as well..
atm, HP are not taking ownership of this problem and it's making a lot of people mad!
check the online petition:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?deadhptx&1
if you click on the view signatures at the bottom, you can see some peoples comments..lot's of fuming customers!
cheers,
bill
p.s. avid DAILY reg reader :D
Posted Wednesday 12th August 2009 22:41 GMT
OmniCitadel
well... #
Sony is just the windows version of crApple... Over Priced Under Powered and short lived.
This topic is closed for new posts.