VGN-AR51J - Potential Graphics Card fail

[stuarab]

Hello

I am trying to fix the above laptop for a work colleague.  The issue they had was they had tried to do a factory reset through windows in safe mode after the screen went screwy.  They said the screen went a bit wierd in the middle.  However once they had run the restore it just hangs on reboot.

I have gone into the Vaio partion F10 and ran all the tests which passed.  I have scanned the hard drive which was fine.  When i run the factory restore it works up until it states windows is about to start fo rthe first time then the screen seems to freeze and go pixellated.  If i leave it at this stage the scren which appears to show lamost interference on the screen can be seen to change.  I am thinking there is a hardware fault with the Grpahics card.  Is this likely?    Any idea what card is in this laptop?  and is relatively simple to replace?

Cheers

Stuart

[peshyxp]

You can check if its a graphic problem by hooking up the laptop to another external monitor using the VGA input which is located in the rear of the laptop

If the picture appears normal ie not fuzzy or pixelated then the problem may be with the lcd or somewhere else

However from what you say and your specific model which has the NVIDIA graphics card it probably sounds like a graphics issue which is very common with laptops fitted with these graphics cards

Sony have offered a free repair for specific models even if outside the warranty period but only allow up to four years

Check the Support website for details on how to check if your specific model is covered

If not then Im afraid the cheapest option, if its a graphics issue, is to get it fixed by a specialist that does reballing of graphics chips. Google search will reveal a number of companies

Ive been quoted anywhere between £80 - £200 but whatever you do dont get Sony to do the repairs if out of warranty and not covered by their free repair since they charge a fortune

This is not a job you can do by yourself since the graphics card is soldered onto the motherboard and you need specialist equipment to extract it for repair purposes

Hope this helps