Vaio system recovery problem

**DirtyVicar** · July 6th, 2004, 11:22 AM

My friend has a Vaio GRV-680, which worked fine for over a year. He had trouble with the display one day - it showed a series of multicolored vertical bars alternating with black bars. He installs a lot of games, so I figured he had some sort of driver problem. I went to the bios, and there was an option to expand the display, or something like that. I switched it to 'no', and the thing started working. About 2 minutes later, the display went all wonky again.

The laptop was basically unusable in that state, so he decided to use the system recovery cd's it came with.

This has made absolutely no difference, except now when you reboot, a dialog box comes up that says "The system is not fully installed. Please run setup again." You have to fill in the blanks on some of the words, because this dialog appears behind the colored/black bars, but I am positive that this is what it says. If you click 'OK', the machine reboots, and you are then presented with a light gray display. The drive access light will sometimes light if you press keys, but the system does not respond in any meaningful way.

I don't think the display itself is bad, because when you use the system recovery cd, the display appears fine. The process itself appears to work ok, you get a progress bar, it asks for disk 2 and 3, says it's finished, etc.

Sony wants money to discuss the problem. I won't let my friend pay it because Sony has provided a recovery solution that doesn't work. I have expressed my displeasure to them on the phone and via e-mail, with no positive results. In my quest for information, I have found this forum. It seems the folks here are more knowlegeable than Sony's support... people, so I'm hopeful!

Thanks in advance!!!

**jbtheman** · July 13th, 2004, 12:15 AM

I too, own a GRV 680 Notebook and it most definitely seems as if I'm not alone on the issue of the video card. Mine started failing after about a year of use while playing games...then it progressed as far as screwing up the logo screen and displaying scrambled screens as it booted into windows...the machine IS unusable now and I'm VERY ANGRY.

I wish i sent it back a month ago but I guess I had faith that i would solve the problem with drivers or tweaks in the Direct3d settings.

But I should have known better.

Now I have a laptop that I payed $2500 for that is UNUSABLE!

only a mainboard will solve the problem but that costs $400+ labor.
and will likely only last another year...

THANKS SONY!!!!

Originally Posted by DirtyVicar

My friend has a Vaio GRV-680, which worked fine for over a year. He had trouble with the display one day - it showed a series of multicolored vertical bars alternating with black bars. He installs a lot of games, so I figured he had some sort of driver problem. I went to the bios, and there was an option to expand the display, or something like that. I switched it to 'no', and the thing started working. About 2 minutes later, the display went all wonky again.

The laptop was basically unusable in that state, so he decided to use the system recovery cd's it came with.

This has made absolutely no difference, except now when you reboot, a dialog box comes up that says "The system is not fully installed. Please run setup again." You have to fill in the blanks on some of the words, because this dialog appears behind the colored/black bars, but I am positive that this is what it says. If you click 'OK', the machine reboots, and you are then presented with a light gray display. The drive access light will sometimes light if you press keys, but the system does not respond in any meaningful way.

I don't think the display itself is bad, because when you use the system recovery cd, the display appears fine. The process itself appears to work ok, you get a progress bar, it asks for disk 2 and 3, says it's finished, etc.

Sony wants money to discuss the problem. I won't let my friend pay it because Sony has provided a recovery solution that doesn't work. I have expressed my displeasure to them on the phone and via e-mail, with no positive results. In my quest for information, I have found this forum. It seems the folks here are more knowlegeable than Sony's support... people, so I'm hopeful!

Thanks in advance!!!

**NooNoo** · July 13th, 2004, 05:10 AM

Welcome to Windrivers DirtyVicar and JBTheMan

Yes that sounds like hardware issues. Dirty - a card can often work at a basic level in dos, but not in windows. A while ago, I saw a dell doing this, but, if you propped up the laptop, the heat could dissapate faster and the problem showed up less often.

If the machine is out of warranty, and there is no extended service arrangement, then Sony are within their rights to charge you.

The only thing you can do is prove that this is happening to the majority of those laptops and get together an action group to pressure Sony into providing a better solution.

**TechZ** · July 13th, 2004, 05:29 AM

Arent the Sony forums any help? There must be a record of many ppl complaining about the machine.

**jbtheman** · July 14th, 2004, 03:37 AM

Originally Posted by TechZ

Arent the Sony forums any help? There must be a record of many ppl complaining about the machine.

I have seen very little mention other than that of one case in which they claim to be investigating the problem.

What I'm finding is that there don't seem to be too many of these out there... though I can't be for certain, I've had a very difficult time just finding the part. In fact, I am interested in any assistance in getting the part so please feel free to reply with any links.

-Jon

**DirtyVicar** · July 14th, 2004, 09:05 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

Yes that sounds like hardware issues. Dirty - a card can often work at a basic level in dos, but not in windows. A while ago, I saw a dell doing this, but, if you propped up the laptop, the heat could dissapate faster and the problem showed up less often.

If the machine is out of warranty, and there is no extended service arrangement, then Sony are within their rights to charge you.

I tried doing a clean install of WinXP, and again, during the installation process, the diplay appears fine until it reaches a certain point, then it turns magenta. It will then only boot into safe mode and the black bars come back.

How do I conclusively prove that it's a hardware problem?
I got updated drivers from the Sony website but it wouldn't install the driver.

Can you replace the videocard only? Can you buy a motherboard for this machine?

Thanks again!

**NooNoo** · July 14th, 2004, 09:34 AM

only a few laptops where ever made with removable video cards. Yes you can buy new motherboards...sit down when reading the prices though....

**pcxz** · July 19th, 2004, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by jbtheman

I too, own a GRV 680 Notebook and it most definitely seems as if I'm not alone on the issue of the video card. Mine started failing after about a year of use while playing games...then it progressed as far as screwing up the logo screen and displaying scrambled screens as it booted into windows...the machine IS unusable now and I'm VERY ANGRY.

I wish i sent it back a month ago but I guess I had faith that i would solve the problem with drivers or tweaks in the Direct3d settings.

But I should have known better.

Now I have a laptop that I payed $2500 for that is UNUSABLE!

only a mainboard will solve the problem but that costs $400+ labor.
and will likely only last another year...

THANKS SONY!!!!

I am in the same situation (PCG-GRV616S like 680) video memory is broken.
If you found any motherboard (at uman price) send message.
Thanks

**Vette** · July 19th, 2004, 11:19 PM

Sheez.........I just checked my sources and an outright buy is $2999.00 and exchange it would be $799.99 my cost just for the board. You guys have a right to be pizzed, but, they are out of warranty. I think that would be my last Sony also.......and to make matters worse this is a sources disclaimer about Sonys.....
PLEASE NOTE:
Even though the manufacturer provides only one part number for the System Board in each series. System Boards bios are unique to each specific PCG models

**format c:** · July 21st, 2004, 11:57 PM

Did anyone mention Lawsuit, I would never by a Sony product, You just pay for the name

If there are a lot of failures of this particular lappie, Then Sony should service you folks in the interest of good public relations, I bought a use Dell Lattitude and that lappie has impressed me many times, Darn good laptop for the price
Heres an idea for you Sony owners, Try a monitor on the monitor out plug and see of the display comes back to normal, It could be the LCD display
Just an idea

**DirtyVicar** · July 26th, 2004, 09:24 AM

Originally Posted by format c:

Did anyone mention Lawsuit, I would never by a Sony product, You just pay for the name

If there are a lot of failures of this particular lappie, Then Sony should service you folks in the interest of good public relations, I bought a use Dell Lattitude and that lappie has impressed me many times, Darn good laptop for the price
Heres an idea for you Sony owners, Try a monitor on the monitor out plug and see of the display comes back to normal, It could be the LCD display
Just an idea

I tried plugging in an external monitor - same black bars on the display.

Laptops are pretty cool, but I'm not buying another unless I can consider it disposable. Too much aggravation and expense when something goes wrong!

**NooNoo** · July 26th, 2004, 11:49 AM

Write to sony ask them if this is a known problem and what you should do to alleviate it.

**DirtyVicar** · July 29th, 2004, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by NooNoo

Write to sony ask them if this is a known problem and what you should do to alleviate it.

Tried that. They said to run the System Recovery. I responded that it wasn't working. All responses since then have been 'send it back'.

On a whim, I did a clean install of Win2k Pro. I can at least get into VGA mode without the black bars. Without a proper driver for the ATI card, I feel like I haven't made much progress, though.

Are there diagnostic programs available to exercise the video card? I googled, but haven't found anything yet.

Thanks!

**NooNoo** · July 29th, 2004, 03:01 PM

start, run , dxdiag

**SMDBIOS** · October 11th, 2004, 02:16 PM

Hello,

We've repaired a few of the GRV display issues. The problem is linked back to excessive heat from poor heat dissipation. The ATI chip needs to be reworked. It's a rather tricky process due to the fact that the "on chip" video RAM is located well.. "On the chip".

This is a growing problem with the GRV line and is also apparent with the GRX line as well.

Contact me if you would like further repair details as far as pricing and turn around time.

Thanks,

Joe K

[email protected]