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Driver issue (Sony Vaio VGN-FZ38M & nVidia GeForce 8400M GT)


Guest Jimmy

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Guest Jimmy

Hi guys,

I'm having real trouble with my Sony Vaio FZ30M, and I'm desperate for help. I'm not the most computer-literate person in the world, so your help and patience would be so, so, greatly appreciated. I apologise in advance if the solution is obvious or simple, and thank you in advance for any and all help!

The laptop is about a year old, and has been fine. Recently, however, I've been having display problems. For the last month or so, the display keeps crashing - screen freezes, then turns black, then comes up with the balloon saying "the display driver stop responding but has recovered." Then the display seemingly melted down entirely - colored artefacts appeared all over the screen, the computer crashed, and it wouldn't restart for about an hour, in the startup section BEFORE the Vista welcome/password screen, the artefacts would appear again, and then the laptop would shut itself down.

Then, it started working fine again (although still with periodic driver display not responding/recovered problems).

I decided to try and update the driver - I've never done so in the entire time I've had the laptop, and I figured this might help the problems, and also improve performance.

The driver updates apparently installed correctly, but when I restarted the computer, I got to the password screen fine, typed in my password, but Windows wouldn't load - I just got a black screen (although the mouse cursor appeared and worked fine). If I pressed control-alt-delete, the screen where you choose task manager, shut down, cancel, etc, came up fine, but when I chose task manager, the black screen came back again.

I've tried three or four different driver updates, all to the same effect.

Please help me! Why don't the drivers install properly?!

Many, many thanks,

-Jimmy

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i hate to bring bad news, but i think your graphics card is failing.

do you still have warranty?

EDIT: typos:P

Edited by SCARFACE69
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Guest Guest

I had this same exact problem with the same exact card on a Vaio VGN-AR520E. One day, I started getting artefacts on the screen, then when I rebooted, it would just show a blank black screen.

I restored the comp to factory conditions, using the Vaio recovery tool. Didn't work. So I completely reformatted and installed Windows using someone else's CD - finally got it working.

But, as I was reinstalling my hardware drivers, the problem came back - I narrowed it down to the Geforce 8400M GT driver. If I install it, then the blank screen returns and I have to go in safe mode and uninstall it.

Right now, I'm running on Standard VGA Graphics Adapter, which I'm guessing (not very computer-smart myself) is the regular graphics thing you run without a video card? I'd like to see a solution to this problem myself - I can't watch a movie in fullscreen or even turn on a screensaver right now without major lagging of the image.

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Guest kobusdt

I have a SONY FZ21M, also with a GeForce 8400M GT graphics card and am experiencing the same problems. There is clearly a big fault with this graphics card. Do you think I can just get another graphics card replaced by another more trustworthy, durable one?

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Guest sagar

i own a vaio fz25gn which has the same problem. i downgraded it to windows xp and the laptop works fine. i am able to watch movies but not able to play games. so i wanted to get the laptop in its original condition. the service center ppl told me that the cost of replacing the graphics card would be more than $500. so i thought it would be stupid to give those thieves so much money. i ordered a 8400m gt nvidia chip myself and replaced it with the faulty one, ofcourse help from a local computer hardware store was required. but the laptop works just as new in under $200. vista works just as it should///!!!

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Guest Guest

HI I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM WITH MY VAIO VGN- FZ290 AND NVIDIA GeForce® 8400M GT BOUGHT IT 18 MONTHS AGO;

DID ANYONE MAYBE TALKED TO SONY ABOUT THIS PROBLEM WICH SEEMS TO ME REPEAT oftenly

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  • 4 weeks later...

Same problem here with a Sony FZ21M

Called Sony in France where I leave.

They say they don't know the problem (big BS) but offer me 20% off on the motherboard change that cost 465?

I told them there was no way I will acceppt this as for example DELL acknoledged the problem with an extended garanty.

They said they will call me back before the end of the week. Eventually, if Sony doesn't answer as I want I will probably sue them for "vice caché".

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  • 1 month later...

Same problem here with a Sony FZ21M

Called Sony in France where I leave.

They say they don't know the problem (big BS) but offer me 20% off on the motherboard change that cost 465?

I told them there was no way I will acceppt this as for example DELL acknoledged the problem with an extended garanty.

They said they will call me back before the end of the week. Eventually, if Sony doesn't answer as I want I will probably sue them for "vice caché".

did they call

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest sanjeev kariwala

i own a vaio fz25gn which has the same problem. i downgraded it to windows xp and the laptop works fine. i am able to watch movies but not able to play games. so i wanted to get the laptop in its original condition. the service center ppl told me that the cost of replacing the graphics card would be more than $500. so i thought it would be stupid to give those thieves so much money. i ordered a 8400m gt nvidia chip myself and replaced it with the faulty one, ofcourse help from a local computer hardware store was required. but the laptop works just as new in under $200. vista works just as it should///!!!

- Can u tell me where did u buy the NVIDIA GE FORCE 8400M GT Chip - I own VGN FZ290 - my graphic card has spoilt & the company says they will only change the entire motherboard which wll cost USD600/ - this is really like being cheated.

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Guest sanjeev kariwala

i own a vaio fz25gn which has the same problem. i downgraded it to windows xp and the laptop works fine. i am able to watch movies but not able to play games. so i wanted to get the laptop in its original condition. the service center ppl told me that the cost of replacing the graphics card would be more than $500. so i thought it would be stupid to give those thieves so much money. i ordered a 8400m gt nvidia chip myself and replaced it with the faulty one, ofcourse help from a local computer hardware store was required. but the laptop works just as new in under $200. vista works just as it should///!!!

Can u tell me where did u buy the NVIDIA GE FORCE 8400M GT Chip - I own VGN FZ290 - my graphic card has spoilt & the company says they will only change the entire motherboard which wll cost USD600/ - this is really like being cheated.

my email id is skariwala@rediffmail.com

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18 months ago I bought a Sony VAIO FZ290 with NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GT. I have the same problem since last week. I see stripes and the resolution is 640-480 :-(

I have 2 laptops and a lot of other Sony products but I will never ever buy one again !!! They charge me 878 Euros for repairing it !!! Although I see a huge number of people with similar problems, all caused by faulty NVIDIA video boards. SONY meant for me high-quality, but now I just feel robbed !!!

Anybody knows if I can change the GeForce 94x with ATI or similar by myself? Do I need to change the entire motherboard or just the video chipset? Please help !!!

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I have an 8400M GT and only three weeks ago its hardware failed (artifacts all over the place). Fortunately it was still under warranty so I could return it to Sony to have it fixed without having to pay anything, but it's still a very fussy video card.

Having recently installed drivers from this website I found that the 8400M GT does not digest them AT ALL and will cause your computer to cease displaying graphics and ultimately to freeze up if you try to run games with modded inf'd drivers.

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Added: My NERD output files at the time when the 186.91 driver was installed. It caused no end of problems, most of the time kicking me out of 16:10 resolution modes (even on desktop), causing screen blackouts and computer reboots everytime the graphics card was sollicited (tested on Call of Juarez and Counter Strike : Source)

I have reverted to version 7.15.11 (native), the problems have ceased altogether.

If anyone knows a solution to this recurrent problem with the 8400M GT it would be greatly appreciated, since neither Sony nor Nvidia want to keep drivers for this card up to date.

LaptopVideo2Go_LogFile.txt

LaptopVideo2Go_RegInfo.txt

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All NVIDIA 8400M / 8600M chips faulty?

by Nilay Patel posted Jul 10th 2008 at 3:07PM

NVIDIA's stock took a pretty big hit last week when it announced that "significant quantities" of "previous-generation" GPUs and mobile and communications processors were defective and that it would take a $250M charge against earnings to repair and replace the affected chips, but the company didn't say which chips specifically were faulty, nor how many. That might be because the problem is much worse than it even sounds -- according to a report in The Inquirer, every single G84 and G86 GPU in the 8400M and 8600M series of cards is affected. Apparently both chips share an ASIC, and the core design suffers from the same heat-related issues. That certainly implicates a "significant quantity" of chips, all right, but this is just a rumor for now -- one that's probably best handled by NVIDIA stepping up and letting its customers know exactly how big the problem is.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Ehoffmann

My Sony vaio VGN-fz340e just had a hardware failure which I'm sure is the Nvidia card in it. The screen would just go black. I'd restart and see red lines in the background and the vaio logo would be garbled when starting up. I tried reinstalling the system from the built in restore partition and now the computer won't even boot up. I called Sony and they said they won't do anything about it because it's out of warranty. 1 1/2 year old laptop. I've babied it, always use a laptop cooler underneath, etc...will never buy another Sony product again.

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Guest mindless

i own a vaio fz25gn which has the same problem. i downgraded it to windows xp and the laptop works fine. i am able to watch movies but not able to play games. so i wanted to get the laptop in its original condition. the service center ppl told me that the cost of replacing the graphics card would be more than $500. so i thought it would be stupid to give those thieves so much money. i ordered a 8400m gt nvidia chip myself and replaced it with the faulty one, ofcourse help from a local computer hardware store was required. but the laptop works just as new in under $200. vista works just as it should///!!!

Hi dude, would you please give the link you ordered the ship? or email it to me plz? gidora666@yahoo.com

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Hi dude, would you please give the link you ordered the ship? or email it to me plz? gidora666@yahoo.com

Also sent me a mail.

I have the same problem and wanna order the 8400m GT .

Please sent me a mail at jjb.peters@gmail.com

Thanks!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Sebastiaan

Exactly the same problem here with a Sony VGN SZ640. Sony claims that there is nothing wrong with it and that a driver update would fix it. It didn't.

I'm considering legal action, is there a precedent?

if you know something, mail me at xeperudesu@gmail.com

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Hi dude, would you please give the link you ordered the ship? or email it to me plz? gidora666@yahoo.com

Pretty sure I'm running into the same thing...would really appreciate it if I could get the link or info where to order a new chip as well. That, or any chip that'll fit an FZ. email - duthugh@umich.edu Thanks much.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i own a vaio fz25gn which has the same problem. i downgraded it to windows xp and the laptop works fine. i am able to watch movies but not able to play games. so i wanted to get the laptop in its original condition. the service center ppl told me that the cost of replacing the graphics card would be more than $500. so i thought it would be stupid to give those thieves so much money. i ordered a 8400m gt nvidia chip myself and replaced it with the faulty one, of course help from a local computer hardware store was required. but the laptop works just as new in under $200. vista works just as it should///!!!

Yeah, bro, i need to order that 8400M GT Nvidia chip also !!! Could you kindly post the link or email to me the link where you bought your 8400M GT Nvidia chip? My Sony Vaio VGN-AR61M is totally unusable with its 4-bit 640x680 screen resolution. Please email me at june.borlongan@gmail.com

Thank you

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Pretty sure I'm running into the same thing...would really appreciate it if I could get the link or info where to order a new chip as well. That, or any chip that'll fit an FZ. email - duthugh@umich.edu Thanks much.

I have an FZ nad have the same problems, does getting a new 8400M GT chip will solve the problem?

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  • 4 months later...
Guest Spinners56c1

sony has a recall on this card i have a vgn-fz-340e the problem is that the cpu and gpu are right next to each other and cause an overheat problem you can call sony and they will repair it for free and very proptely mine was fixed at my home within 4 buieness day if you can beleive that!!!!

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Shailendra

I am having VGN-FZ11M which i had bought from Switzerland in Sep 2007. Last month it graphics card (nVidia GeForce 8400M GT) failed and this made me very upset because i knew that i will need to spend a lot of money to get it repaired because sony is famous of charging a good amount even for a small problem. I searched on internet for this issue and found that Sony had acknowledged the problem with this faulty chip and there was an announcement on their European website about replacing it without charging anything to customer.

Well i was in India and laptop was out of warranty so i was not sure whether Sony india will entertain my request for repairing my laptop without charging anything to me or not. Anyway i contacted Sony India and they told me that they are aware of this problem. They agreed to replace the faulty chip without charging anything to me. I was very happy at that time but my joy did not last for long time. They took three weeks to replace the graphics card but after repair i don't see the same picture quality which it was having before the graphics card failure. With normal settings text appears properly but little bit washed out. Also little dark portions of pictures taken in even sunlight are appearing very dark with same settings which was not the case earlier. If i increase brightness and contrast, i will get little clear picture but then it becomes very difficult to read the text because the screen appears very bright at high brightness which is not comfortable to eyes. At no setting i am able to see both clear picture and text which is really painful.

So the bottom line is that one should go for sony products only if you have lot of money because many laptop accessories like batteries, AC adapter etc are having short life span compare to other branded laptops. You will feel the heat when you will buy a new battery for your vaio laptop.

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Guest lilocherry

sony has a recall on this card i have a vgn-fz-340e the problem is that the cpu and gpu are right next to each other and cause an overheat problem you can call sony and they will repair it for free and very proptely mine was fixed at my home within 4 buieness day if you can beleive that!!!!

Hi Spinners56c1,

Can you please tell me how you were able to accomplish this? I only found a recall for the vgn TZ models, not the fz-340e. Thanks so much!

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