Hello everyone,
I am brand new to this site, hope it's ok to dive right in with a problem I am having with a Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21Z that I bought brand new only 15 months ago (unfortunately, 3 months past it's warranty end date). Firstly I would like to apologize if this post is a bit mish mash, it's because I can hardly see my screen... and my eyes are fried so my grammar and spelling is the least of my worries right now!
Basically in a nutshell, I did nothing new to my laptop, haven't installed anything or reset anything... one day the graphics went crazy. Stripes, multi-coloured boxes and zig - zag shapes all over. The resolution changes also, it goes really large and I can't get it to go back to normal. Sometimes, when I fiddle with the display settngs it resets it for a little while, but soon after the graphics go back to stripes and patterns. The laptop is still operational (hence this post!). Please does any one have any idea why this is happening and what can resolve it. This is driving me mental and it must be fixable because every so often after a bit of fiddling around it is crystal clear...
I took some screen shots for example... I don't know if i will be able to post these on here, but will give it a shot.

[IMG]http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q41/taytos/GreenDisplay.jpg[/IMG]

The pic above is when it's at it's worst and this is what it looks like when it's starting up sometimes

[IMG]http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q41/taytos/Mountain.jpg[/IMG]

This is the normal screen, still fully operational but crazy graphics and massive text & pics...

Please help me before I go blind from looking at this screen through stripes!!!

As no one has posted with an answer, i assume no one knows.

It is an odd problem, it is hard to say whether it is a lcd problem, or a video card problem.

I guess it would be best if you can hook it up to an external monitor and see if it still acts up. That would let you know what was bad so that you could go from there.

You could try the latest drivers for your video card.

I would uninstall the drivers and update to the latest.Ive had my screen look like that a few times and drivers usally fix it.But if it doesnt then id have to say the video card has bad memory.Im assuming mobile graphics have their own ram

Hi, thanks for your reply. Well I am willing to try that. I am a bit of a novice though, how do i go about uninstalling the drivers and which drivers do you recommend uninstalling? How do i go about re-installing them then after? Sorry to be a pain...

My laptop tends to overheat at the best of times, I hope it hasn't fried anything... for some reason today my laptop has been working perfectly. I just don't get it. How can it work perfectly for 8 hours plus and then go back to the graphic mess it was in yesterday. Usually when it goes to sleep it kick starts the distortion so i have made sure i have not let that happen today.

When i start up the laptop, the VAIO symbol shows up first, I am told that means something, but i don't know what!

I might get the motherboard replaced as that has a built in graphic card. But will gladly try the drivers thing first. I spent a lot of money on this lap top a year ago and am gutted to have to throw more money at it. I was hoping to get 3+ years out of this thing at least!!!

Hi, it's me again, I figured out how to install and uninstall the drivers, so which ones do you recommend me doing this to!?

Thanks.

I searched for the laptop and it seems it has a 8600m so that would be a dedicated graphics card. You can uninstall the driver by going to add or remove options from windows and searching for Nvidia, then select it and only uninstall the display driver.

Go here to download the needed drivers: http://tinyurl.com/2ot2y8

Select the product series as 8M Series (Notebooks) then select your operating system and download. Be sure to not have any scanners running while installing the driver. Then If all went right it should fix the problem.

A nasty thing that comes to mind if all this fails, is that lawsuit that Nvidia got for mobile series graphics cards being faulty.

Meats_Of_Evil said:

Yeah forgot all about that

I was having the same problem as Natalie, above. I copied the pic from the link and e-mailed it to my son so he could tell me what it might be. I have a Compaq Presario desk top pc.
Uses NVIDIA GeForce graphics card and he advised me to download driver. I had a computer repairman come look at it who took it to his store over the weekend. Turned out to be that a build up of dust inside was preventing the fan from working properly and over heating.

The only difference between the screenshot and my screen was the color and that mine had an angle instead of being straight across the screen. The color seemed to depend on what was on the screen at the time.

So, in MY CASE it was a simple thing that could have been prevented if I'd had it cleaned professionally for a few dollars every few months.

Sorry, I meant Melody. My apologies!

That's ok; Melody isn't my real name anyway!!

The update with me is that my laptop got fixed but only lasted a few months until the problem reared its ugly head again

I had a six month warranty with the repair man so I decided to get it fixed again as it would be for free and I had nothing to lose with that pile of SONY junk.

The laptop repair man explained that the issue is this:

The NVIDIA graphics card is built into the motherboard and certain models of laptops have an overheating problem which causes the graphics card to come away from the motherboard.

Originally when my laptop broke, I rang the shop (where I bought the laptop) and was told that because it was out with my 1 year store warranty, they couldn't do anything for me; I did a little bit of research online (with my new cheap laptop that I had to buy) and found that a lot of people were complaining about the same problem, so much so that Sony (albeit Sony USA) themselves were forced to release a statement about it on 08/03/09. The Statement can be read here:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/news-item.pl?mdl=VGNFZ190N&news_id=349

In a nutshell, they were acknowledging the fault with the NVIDIA Graphics card and were offering to repair faulty laptops. Meanwhile back at the ranch I decided to contact Consumer Direct and ask them what rights I have as a consumer in this situation.

http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/

They told me that I should write a letter to the shop and quote The Sale of Goods Act 1979 as amended. According to this Act, it says that goods should be of satisfactory quality and free from minor defects, have good appearance and finish and are durable, safe and fit for all the purposes for which such goods are commonly supplied.

My laptop had a fault and was definitely not durable. I came off the phone feeling like I would like to take this further.

I sent the letter to them by registered delivery. That cost me £5.00 which all tots up considering I have had to get the laptop fixed and have had to buy a new laptop less than 18months later.

I decided to phone Sony just to see where I would stand if I didn't get anywhere with the shop. I called 0905 031 0006 which cost 35p a minute. I got talking to a nice chap. I explained the situation and without delay he assigned a case number to me and told me that DHL will pick up my laptop tomorrow for repair. It all felt too good to be true.

It was.

An hour later, I had a phone call from Sony. This time the person on the other end of the phone was very, very difficult to understand. I had to embarrass myself and her by constantly having to ask her to repeat herself and spell the words so I could get the information I needed. It was near impossible to decipher what she was saying. She proceeded to tell me that she was from Sony and she would like to 'discuss fees with me'. I nearly cracked up. Just an hour earlier the other fella acknowledged the fault and told me it was a problem with the NVIDIA chip and knew all about it. Now this girl was saying that I had to pay!! I went into rant mode with her and relayed the conversation I had earlier with the fella. She said "Ooh I don't know why he would say those things"… She said she would check with the technician to see if there is a known fault of this nature. She said she would call me back but couldn't guarantee it would be today. She said this so many times I thought I was going to have a breakdown.

In hindsight, I should have asked to talk to her supervisor (In the hope that I could understand him).

Moments later, I got a blank email from Sony quoting a different case number to the one that the guy gave me. So are they going to pick up my laptop tomorrow or not!?!? I don't know as they don't have the courtesy to call me back that day. I have two case numbers now, one says I have to pay, the other says I don't. One says I am having my laptop picked up tomorrow, the other says I am not.

I don't know if anyone is still reading this or not, but I’ll continue nevertheless…because I am on a rant...

The next thing that happened was, the following day, a guy (really difficult to understand again - really didn't speak English very well and was speaking very quickly to compensate for it) called me up and said that Sony would collect my laptop for free. But here's the catch: If they determined that the problem was with the NVIDIA card, then they would fix it and return it to me free of charge. If however, they determined that the problem lay elsewhere, then I would have to pay to get it fixed. If I didn't want to get it fixed I would have to pay £160 to get my laptop back!!!!

Now, I would be risking it big time because of the fact that I have had my laptop opened by an independent computer repair man and I reckon that they would jump on that and tell me that it forfeits my NVIDIA graphics card warranty.... oh ya, I forgot to tell you what I learned... they said the NVIDIA Graphics card is covered by a separate warranty and it's 5 years or something like that...

Also, given the chance, I suspect that they would take my laptop in for repair and somehow tweak it to suit themselves by saying, “oh no, the problem is with the laptop overheating, it’s got nothing to do with the NVIDIA graphics card – we could fix the laptop for you at a price” and then I’d have to pay to get it back.

So my advice to anyone whose laptop is in this condition… would be as follows:

1. Visit the Consumer Rights website above
2. Learn what your rights are as a Consumer
3. Take the necessary steps to make your dissatisfaction heard
4. Try and get your money back/laptop repaired for free…
5. Do all of the above BEFORE you let anyone open your laptop.


They shouldn’t get away with this. We should make a racket, we owe it to each other.

Me against SONY...

I suppose this is why we as dissatisfied consumers don't like to go down this road. It's a pain in the neck and their 'system' is designed to make you go crazy so you'll give up trying. You phone one number and talk to someone you don’t understand, they give you another number, which costs 35p/min and after a half an hour wait, you get talking to someone you can't understand…. You call the shop, they blame the Manufacturer, you call the Manufacturer, they blame the shop… round and round you go until you give up and then they win. Thieves and robbers and bullies. It's disgusting….

Will let you know the outcome when I hear back.... don't worry, I'm not getting my hopes up...

When I was searching for a possible reason for my own display problem, I ran across several other sites before finding your screen shot. MANY people have had problems with NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards.
My computer IS 3 years old and has worked perfectly, except for only having 512MB RAM and running slow at times, which will be FIXED in a couple weeks. And mine, also has the graphics card and everything as one unit but with slots for others to be added.
I hope they take care of your problem with no more run around.
It reminds me of the Lexmark Store. A few months ago I received 2 ink cartridges on the rewards program. They are "refilled cartridges" which will NOT work in my printer. But the guy who answered my e-mail acted, (sounded) like I may have refilled them myself and "explained" that once a cartridge has been USED it will always show as "empty" on the display due to a built in chip that lets the printer KNOW if the cartridge is empty or full. I can't help but wonder WHY the LEXMARK STORE people, KNOWING THAT would send refilled cartridges to ANYONE or why that chip couldn't be replaced when THEY refill the cartridge and has made me very leery of buying from them again.
NOW they have "reward program cartridges" for SALE along side the NEW ones. I know one thing for SURE and have told them so. I will NOT be buying a Lexmark when it comes time for a new printer.

Well that sums up Lexmark. My old folks had a Lexmark, and it was the s**ttiest
most tempermental piece of s**te I'd ever come across in my life so far.
Plus it looked like some f**k russian 80's car or some s**t! Awful..

Anyway back to the thread.... sorry......

Those pics you showed, they are one of 2 problems.
The first problem (and this isn't your problem) is when the pins on the VGA/DVi are
bent due to force. Yes I know you have a laptop, but I wanted to point this out.

But, you're problem is defo heat related and nothing to do with drivers.
Your GPU is getting to such a heat, that it's artifacting all over the place.
I hate laptops! I'd much prefer to carry my tower under my arm where ever I go!