Sony vaio motherboard faulty

[jacobbakesbread]

Hiya

I have a Sony vaio pcg-391m VGN-FZ21M

My problem is that when I use the PC, there are green/red lines on the screen, but when I connect the laptop to an external monitor, the lines are not there. This leaves me to believe that the graphics chip on the motherboard is faulty. Where would I be able to get a new motherboard, and the motherboard that I have in my laptop, would I have to get the exact one or is there other motherboards that I would be able to use?

Many thanks

Jacob

[Blencogo]

Hopefully, this is not your problem and a driver re-install may fix it.

Here is a very old thread from many years ago about PCs using the  nvidea 8400/8500 series of video chip.

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/pcs-accessories/nvidia-g84m-g86m-faulty-chip-happen-to-vaio/m-p/1253...

Sony repaired Vaios with this problem back then but all the extended warranties have long since expired.

This may or may not be your problem.

My memory of this problem is now a little hazy but I seem to recall defective solder or soldering was the cause. Some third party repairers offered a fix that involved heating the chip until the solder melted and restored contact. Others offered a re-soldering repair but this was quite expensive.

I hope this is not the cause of your problem - there is some hope as an external monitor works OK. Usually a faulty chip will cause the same problem on laptop and external screens. If I were you, I would reinstall the latest Sony supplied video driver from your model’s support website and hope this works.

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/laptop-pc-vgn-series/vgn-fz21m/downloads