Sony Vaio VPCEA1S1E dead display system

[geo3geo3]

Nothing at all on laptop display and using external HDMI display doesn't work either - pressing  Func+F7 to select.
I've removed hard drive (in case it's faulty) and I'm booting off a DVD system disc which sounds like it's loading but with no video I can't progress.
Any ideas?

[Thalamus.]

Hi geo3geo3,

welcome to the Sony user community..

From what you say this doesn’t sound good, I suspect there is a problem with the graphics chip.. 

[geo3geo3]

Yes, that's what I was thinking, but hoping I'd missed something.