Blue Screens on Sony Vaio VN-FZ3S with GeForce 8600M GS

[Guest Susanne]

Hello everybody!

I'm new here and unfortunately a complete noob when it comes to drivers - in addition to that i really was lost on your page concerning the selection of drivers, so i ended up having to post my problem and request in your forum. I'd appreciate some help a lot, whether it's an instruction on how to use the site or an actual hint about the driver that might help me.

Technical data (at least the ones I know):

Sony Vaio VGN-FZ31S

OS: Windows Vista 32bit SP2

graphic card: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS

last working driver: unknown (as i don't know where to find that information or how to be sure which driver is what)

problem causing driver: unkown

Problem description:

Since 04 january i've been getting blue screens of a general sort "A problem has been detected on your computer ..." (so no specific name like IRQL_ETC_ETC_) and with similar codes, always starting with 0x1000008E 0xC0000005 etc. Whenever the problem would strike, windows would either crash and stop or i'd get a blue screen. When rebooting I'd get green stripes right from the beginning (so immediately when the screen says "Vaio", when the blue loading bar appears etc.) and before I can log in the blue screen would appear again. Safe mode is stable and no green stripes there. When rebooting it can happen that everything is fine again and I can enter windows the normal way. The laptop has been running for days without showing any of the problems described above, and then suddenly they would strike again. The best predictor for a blue screen was using VLC (or SmPlayer) but i could also watch things without experiencing any troubles.

What I tried so far:

- hardware diagnosis provided by sony vaio (to be found in the rescue center under F10, it searches memory, processors and hard disc) which didn't find problems with those parts of hardware

- setting up windows anew (with the hidden rescue partition, performed via F10 rescue center)

- uninstalling all nvidia drivers (with uninstall, driver sweeper and ccleaner following instructions at the bottom of the thread http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/grafikkarten/113457-nvlddmkm-sys-problem-geloest.html) and putting a different driver on - which failed as apparently only drivers Sony itself releases work for Vaios

- analysing the minidumpfile (a friend did this for me) which showed that the file nvlddmkm.sys is causing the problem - so a nvidia driver-related file

Apparently (according to Sony and the place that is certified to repair Vaios - I don't have guarantee any more) it is very common with this Vaio model that the graphics card itself is broken and that would still be repaired within guarantee. But to me it looks like really it's the driver.

So finally, my question is: can anybody help me with finding an older driver that might be workable for my laptop and not cause these problems? I don't really mind if it's new or "the best" ;-) i don't have high requirements, i'd just like my laptop to work again.

I would be really happy and thankful if anybody could help me in any way. Please forgive my dilettantish way of describing things. I'll do my very best to cooperate.

Thanks!

Susanne

[Guest CastorT]

Hi! I have de same problem!same sony vaio...could you tell me if you found any solutions?it could be really helpul for me.

Thanks!