VGN-AR61M nvidia graphics card issue

[kevwilli43]

Hi there,

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-AR61M which is 3 1/2 years old, and has a GeForce 8400M GT GPU. I have suffered for the past two weeks with a Blue Screen of Death, followed byu a garbled windows loading screen, followed by lots of ! signs before I get t the login screen - the machine then hangs. I removed the graphics driver, no use. When I load with standard VGA adaptor it works fine. I tried a full system restore to factory settings, but no good. Having read of others with this issue I found a couple of articles about Sony extending the warranty to 4 years for the laptops that contain this graphics card. Is this actually the case? If so, am I eligible, as I believe my graphics card has gone bang!

Kind regards,

Kev

[rich912]

Hi Kev,

The AR61M is not one of the models that Sony has acknowledged as having a problem with the nVidia graphics chip. Here's the list that Sony accept are affected:

VGN-FZ11x, VGN-FZ18x, VGN-FZ21x, VGN-FZ31x, VGN-FZ38x,

VGN-AR11x, VGN-AR21x, VGN-AR31x,

VGN-C1Zx, VGN-C2Zx,

VGC-LM1xx, VGC-LM2xx,

VGC-LT1xx, VGC-LT2xx.

There have been other reports of the same problem with the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT graphics chip on this forum over the last couple of weeks. Here is a link to one of them.

http://www.sony-europe.com/discussions/message/687679#687679

The OP from the above thread has not carried out a system recovery to date but as you have this should rule out a driver problem. It would seem to be hardware or firmware related

Rich

[erinyame]

Hi Kev

I have exact same problem. My 3 and 1/2 years old VGN-AR61M has problems with its graphics! The screen is garbled and I can't do any work. Sometimes it starts alright, I get to the log-in page and the screen is unreadable.

This has set me back a few days of work. The problem appears to be quite common. I went to a computer shop where the repairer showed me two same laptops witht he same problem waiting to be fixed by him. He is talking about changing the motherboard altogether, which is not worth it.

I think Sony should have a rethink about how common this problem is with this model!

Eric

[indzosta]

Hi,

Exactly the same problem for me.

Exactly the same VGN-AR61M, also 3.5 years old.

I am DISAPPOINTED of SONY products and their 2 yr warranty.

Not to mention that the battery expired after the 2 yr use.

[ronhamma]

I have a Sony Vaio VGN-AR61M laptop. A month ago the graphics start to mess up. I got blue stripes over the screen at startup, and after that white artefacts all over the screen. Tryed to install new drivers, but still the same problem. Now i can only use safe mode with low resolution, otherwise the screen freeses and also sometimes got blue screen. My graphics card is Nvidia Geforce 8400M GT GPU.

After checking internet for solutions I can see there are lots of people with similar problems. Is there a solution ?

/Ronny H.

[rich912]

Hi Ronny H,

Reballing/reflow of the graphics chip sometimes fixes the problem but otherwise a new motherboard is often needed.

Rich

[gugabackhand]

I agree, since cards are embedded in motherboard for notebooks usually. So purchasing a new pne would be the best option.

If it's a few years old, I would buy a new one and make this as an excuse.

[TOBLERONE333]

driver za laptop

[rich912]

Hi TROBLRONE333,

You will find available drivers at the following link.

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/VGN-AR61M

Rich

[Fender67]

Before troubleshooting your Nvidia chip make sure to uninstall http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2982791

and all associated updates, and reinstall again your Nvidia drivers because this update destroys Nvidia drivers.

MS has already removed it.

Regards,