Sony Vaio laptop banding screen problem

P

Pete L

Reallystruggling here posting in Safe Mode. I have a four year old
Sony Vaio VGN-FE38GP laptop. A couple of days ago the screen went
black suddenly and an Ctrl-Alt-Del would not work. I did a re-boot by
just holding down the on/off button. On re-boot WinXP Pro started to
load but on screen were parallel vertical bands of what looks like
interference. They were greenish colour. Loading stopped after the
welcome screen and it just went black with the greenish bands down the
screen. I then manged to re-load in Safe Mode. I checked for any
hardware messages in system info and there was nothing. I then tried a
system restore to a few days ago but it made no difference. I got a
man in to check it over. He undid the machine and checked all the
connections to the screen. He had a good look for anything likely and
he also checked my startup to see if there were any virus like things
there. He was on the point of giving up when everything came back to
normal on re-boot and he shot out the door quickly! After an hour the
same problem returned. Does anybody here have an ida what is going on?
It seems like a hardware problem but I really do not know what to do
next. I can only do this in safe mode and am using Firefox. This
screen is normal but I can see the green banding at the top. Help
appreciated!
 
T

Tim Meddick

If you can see anything on the screen during the bootup / pre-Windows -
startup (such as stuff like "Press [Del] to enter Setup") and / or can see
to access the Setup BIOS program, then it's not a hardware thing.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :)
 
P

Pete L

If you can see anything on the screen during the bootup / pre-Windows -
startup (such as stuff like "Press [Del] to enter Setup") and / or can see
to access the Setup BIOS program, then it's not a hardware thing.

==

Cheers,    Tim Meddick,    Peckham, London.    :)


Reallystruggling here posting in Safe Mode. I have a four year old
Sony Vaio VGN-FE38GP laptop. A couple of days ago the screen went
black suddenly and an Ctrl-Alt-Del would not work. I did a re-boot by
just holding down the on/off button. On re-boot WinXP Pro started to
load but on screen were parallel vertical bands of what looks like
interference. They were greenish colour. Loading stopped after the
welcome screen and it just went black with the greenish bands down the
screen. I then manged to re-load in Safe Mode. I checked for any
hardware messages in system info and there was nothing. I then tried a
system restore to a few days ago but it made no difference. I got a
man in to check it over. He undid the machine and checked all the
connections to the screen. He had a good look for anything likely and
he also checked my startup to see if there were any virus like things
there. He was on the point of giving up when everything came back to
normal on re-boot and he shot out the door quickly! After an hour the
same problem returned. Does anybody here have an ida what is going on?
It seems like a hardware problem but I really do not know what to do
next. I can only do this in safe mode and am using Firefox. This
screen is normal but I can see the green banding at the top. Help
appreciated!

Tom, thanks. Just re-booted now and there is nothing before the
welcomescreen comes up. From black a square mesh of green pixels
appears first then a few seconds later the welcome screen appears
through all the banding. It then sits for a while whilst the drive
light flickers then all goes black with the greenish bands remaining.
Next boot up then puts me into a Dos type screen and invites me to
start in Safe Mode. All works ok then but with a stretched screen and
the underlying bands. I'm sure it is a hardware problem. I have just
ordered myself a new Dell laptop! It's an Inspiron 15 - looks good for
my needs!
 
T

Tim Meddick

100% of PCs that I have seen in my life, all show logos, POST test results,
messages on what key gets you into the BIOS, and stuff like that, as the
thing boots, but before it hands over to whatever OS is on the
hard-drive...

Therefore, the problem can really only be the monitor (with a tiny percent
chance the videocard circuitry has died), but more probably the monitor.

Take the monitor to a friend or friendly computer shop, and see it plugged
into another PC to test.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :)




If you can see anything on the screen during the bootup / pre-Windows -
startup (such as stuff like "Press [Del] to enter Setup") and / or can
see
to access the Setup BIOS program, then it's not a hardware thing.

==

Cheers, Tim Meddick, Peckham, London. :)


Reallystruggling here posting in Safe Mode. I have a four year old
Sony Vaio VGN-FE38GP laptop. A couple of days ago the screen went
black suddenly and an Ctrl-Alt-Del would not work. I did a re-boot by
just holding down the on/off button. On re-boot WinXP Pro started to
load but on screen were parallel vertical bands of what looks like
interference. They were greenish colour. Loading stopped after the
welcome screen and it just went black with the greenish bands down the
screen. I then manged to re-load in Safe Mode. I checked for any
hardware messages in system info and there was nothing. I then tried a
system restore to a few days ago but it made no difference. I got a
man in to check it over. He undid the machine and checked all the
connections to the screen. He had a good look for anything likely and
he also checked my startup to see if there were any virus like things
there. He was on the point of giving up when everything came back to
normal on re-boot and he shot out the door quickly! After an hour the
same problem returned. Does anybody here have an ida what is going on?
It seems like a hardware problem but I really do not know what to do
next. I can only do this in safe mode and am using Firefox. This
screen is normal but I can see the green banding at the top. Help
appreciated!

Tom, thanks. Just re-booted now and there is nothing before the
welcomescreen comes up. From black a square mesh of green pixels
appears first then a few seconds later the welcome screen appears
through all the banding. It then sits for a while whilst the drive
light flickers then all goes black with the greenish bands remaining.
Next boot up then puts me into a Dos type screen and invites me to
start in Safe Mode. All works ok then but with a stretched screen and
the underlying bands. I'm sure it is a hardware problem. I have just
ordered myself a new Dell laptop! It's an Inspiron 15 - looks good for
my needs!
 
S

SC Tom

Pete L said:
Reallystruggling here posting in Safe Mode. I have a four year old
Sony Vaio VGN-FE38GP laptop. A couple of days ago the screen went
black suddenly and an Ctrl-Alt-Del would not work. I did a re-boot by
just holding down the on/off button. On re-boot WinXP Pro started to
load but on screen were parallel vertical bands of what looks like
interference. They were greenish colour. Loading stopped after the
welcome screen and it just went black with the greenish bands down the
screen. I then manged to re-load in Safe Mode. I checked for any
hardware messages in system info and there was nothing. I then tried a
system restore to a few days ago but it made no difference. I got a
man in to check it over. He undid the machine and checked all the
connections to the screen. He had a good look for anything likely and
he also checked my startup to see if there were any virus like things
there. He was on the point of giving up when everything came back to
normal on re-boot and he shot out the door quickly! After an hour the
same problem returned. Does anybody here have an ida what is going on?
It seems like a hardware problem but I really do not know what to do
next. I can only do this in safe mode and am using Firefox. This
screen is normal but I can see the green banding at the top. Help
appreciated!

Being a 4-year old laptop, it's possible that there is dust, pet hair, etc.
blocking the air circulation. Did the man do any cleaning while he had it
apart, or was it not torn down that far?
Unplug it from the wall and remove the battery. Turn the laptop over, remove
any panels that you can get off, pull your RAM and HDD (if they come out
that way) to get them out of the way, then use a can of pressurized air to
blow back from where the air comes out. This should dislodge any dust
collected inside. Then you can use a small brush or vacuum cleaner to remove
it. Careful with the vacuum- you don't want to break anything with it. I use
a crevice tool and bring it close to the areas I need to clean without
actually touching anything. Put it back together and see if you still have
the problem.
 
P

Pete L

Being a 4-year old laptop, it's possible that there is dust, pet hair, etc.
blocking the air circulation. Did the man do any cleaning while he had it
apart, or was it not torn down that far?
Unplug it from the wall and remove the battery. Turn the laptop over, remove
any panels that you can get off, pull your RAM and HDD (if they come out
that way) to get them out of the way, then use a can of pressurized air to
blow back from where the air comes out. This should dislodge any dust
collected inside. Then you can use a small brush or vacuum cleaner to remove
it. Careful with the vacuum- you don't want to break anything with it. I use
a crevice tool and bring it close to the areas I need to clean without
actually touching anything. Put it back together and see if you still have
the problem.

Thanks Tom - yes, the man did use a can of air. He suspected perhaps
the connectors to the screen. He disconnected them and put them back.
He also took out the hard drive but didn't touch the RAM. I don't use
the laptop in a dusty or dirty area but it is on every day. I turn on
about 8'ish in the morning and generally it goes off at bedtime.
Fairly soon I have to give a Powerpoint presentation and I have lost
confidence in this laptop. I quite accept it if there is a proper
fault and that maybe it's not worth repairing but it's very
frustrating not knowing what exactly is causing the trouble. Is there
any kind of software available that could pin point the problem?
 
P

Paul

Pete said:
Reallystruggling here posting in Safe Mode. I have a four year old
Sony Vaio VGN-FE38GP laptop. A couple of days ago the screen went
black suddenly and an Ctrl-Alt-Del would not work. I did a re-boot by
just holding down the on/off button. On re-boot WinXP Pro started to
load but on screen were parallel vertical bands of what looks like
interference. They were greenish colour. Loading stopped after the
welcome screen and it just went black with the greenish bands down the
screen. I then manged to re-load in Safe Mode. I checked for any
hardware messages in system info and there was nothing. I then tried a
system restore to a few days ago but it made no difference. I got a
man in to check it over. He undid the machine and checked all the
connections to the screen. He had a good look for anything likely and
he also checked my startup to see if there were any virus like things
there. He was on the point of giving up when everything came back to
normal on re-boot and he shot out the door quickly! After an hour the
same problem returned. Does anybody here have an ida what is going on?
It seems like a hardware problem but I really do not know what to do
next. I can only do this in safe mode and am using Firefox. This
screen is normal but I can see the green banding at the top. Help
appreciated!

Vertical bands of brightly colored (saturated) lines, could be
an LCD panel failure.

If the Sony Vaio uses an Nvidia GPU, you could be seeing a
GPU failure. Some people have fixed that, by "baking" the PCB
to restore the solder joints underneath the GPU. But such
an approach uses uncontrolled temperature conditions, and
comes with no guarantees of success.

I can see a spec here for VGN-FE38GP.

http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/product/vaio/vgn_fe38gp_e.jsp#spec

"Intel Core2 Duo Processor T7200 (2 GHz)
"Intel 945GM Express Chipset " <--- your first GPU
"NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600" <--- your second GPU

I don't know how you'd do this, but I'd disable the Go 7600 at
the BIOS level, and boot the computer again, and see what happens.
It could be a solder joint on the 7600 is bad, and switching it
off will give you some more life from the thing, without replacing
the motherboard or something. Do you know if there is a BIOS
level or OS level switch, for the graphics operating mode ?
Like a gamer mode that turns on the 7600 ?

http://www.ngshopping.com/pictures/...Series_VGN-FE38GP_Laptop_Motherb_10271312.jpg

http://www.netbook-battery.net/imag...VGN-FE BIOSED CTO MOTHERBOARD A1185782A Z.jpg

I think your second GPU, could be on the upper right of the photo.
with a RAM chip above and to the right of it. Normally,
those components would be covered with a heatpipe cooler
assembly, not shown.

Paul
 
P

Pete L

Vertical bands of brightly colored (saturated) lines, could be
an LCD panel failure.

If the Sony Vaio uses an Nvidia GPU, you could be seeing a
GPU failure. Some people have fixed that, by "baking" the PCB
to restore the solder joints underneath the GPU. But such
an approach uses uncontrolled temperature conditions, and
comes with no guarantees of success.

I can see a spec here for VGN-FE38GP.

http://www.sonystyle.com.hk/ss/product/vaio/vgn_fe38gp_e.jsp#spec

    "Intel Core2 Duo Processor T7200 (2 GHz)
    "Intel 945GM Express Chipset "              <--- your first GPU
    "NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600"                    <--- your second GPU

I don't know how you'd do this, but I'd disable the Go 7600 at
the BIOS level, and boot the computer again, and see what happens.
It could be a solder joint on the 7600 is bad, and switching it
off will give you some more life from the thing, without replacing
the motherboard or something. Do you know if there is a BIOS
level or OS level switch, for the graphics operating mode ?
Like a gamer mode that turns on the 7600 ?

http://www.ngshopping.com/pictures/products/8b773dee-1e1d-44bf-99d3-7...

http://www.netbook-battery.net/images/20101112060812Sony VGN-FE B...

I think your second GPU, could be on the upper right of the photo.
with a RAM chip above and to the right of it. Normally,
those components would be covered with a heatpipe cooler
assembly, not shown.

    Paul

Thanks Paul. All sounds possible but I think I'll mess around with it
after I have received a new laptop! The actual bands themselves are
not saturated. Typing this now (in Safe Mode, which is all I can get,
as a normal boot just goes into a loop without getting beyond the
welcome screen) - the screen is as normal except the font size is
bigger. However at the top of the screen I can see green and red
banding which is not solid but made up of tiny dashes about 2mm long.
I'm determined to get to the bottom of this problem but it is tricky
as I am not well into hardware things!
 
S

SC Tom

Pete said:
Thanks Tom - yes, the man did use a can of air. He suspected perhaps
the connectors to the screen. He disconnected them and put them back.
He also took out the hard drive but didn't touch the RAM. I don't use
the laptop in a dusty or dirty area but it is on every day. I turn on
about 8'ish in the morning and generally it goes off at bedtime.
Fairly soon I have to give a Powerpoint presentation and I have lost
confidence in this laptop. I quite accept it if there is a proper
fault and that maybe it's not worth repairing but it's very
frustrating not knowing what exactly is causing the trouble. Is there
any kind of software available that could pin point the problem?

You can pop the RAM out and back in, but that probably won't fix it either.
Then again, who knows unless you try.

There is diagnostic software out there that would maybe (operative word
being 'maybe') find out what's wrong with it, but if the prices are anywhere
near what they were in the early 1990's, they are cost prohibitive for the
average home user.
 
G

glee

Pete L said:
Thanks Paul. All sounds possible but I think I'll mess around with it
after I have received a new laptop! The actual bands themselves are
not saturated. Typing this now (in Safe Mode, which is all I can get,
as a normal boot just goes into a loop without getting beyond the
welcome screen) - the screen is as normal except the font size is
bigger. However at the top of the screen I can see green and red
banding which is not solid but made up of tiny dashes about 2mm long.
I'm determined to get to the bottom of this problem but it is tricky
as I am not well into hardware things!

The way I read this, you are still seeing the "bands' in Safe Mode but
they are at the top of the screen rather than all over the screen as
before.

It could still be the LCD screen, but I think it's a failing GPU...the
graphics chipset. If all was normal in Safe Node, I'd suspect display
drivers. If all was equally bad in Safe Mode, I'd suspect the screen or
the GPU. Since it is still there but not as bad in Safe Mode, that
makes me think the GPU is handling the lower resolution and color depth
of Safe Mode better than it can handle that of normal mode.

Not much help, I know....
 
P

Pete L

The way I read this, you are still seeing the "bands' in Safe Mode but
they are at the top of the screen rather than all over the screen as
before.

It could still be the LCD screen, but I think it's a failing GPU...the
graphics chipset.  If all was normal in Safe Node, I'd suspect display
drivers.  If all was equally bad in Safe Mode, I'd suspect the screen or
the GPU.  Since it is still there but not as bad in Safe Mode, that
makes me think the GPU is handling the lower resolution and color depth
of Safe Mode better than it can handle that of normal mode.

Not much help, I know....

Thanks Glen. So, would I be right in saying that as XP boots up it
finds that the graphics is not working properly and so stops booting
in normal mode. Then when I boot up in Safe Mode because lots of
processes are not loaded - including parts that need a properly
functioning GPU - it does load ok and apart from a banded screen. As I
write this, in this window all is normal, but at the top of the screen
I can see the banding. Using Firefox I am also keeping an eye on the
tennis in Melbourne. It's just about watchable with vertical bands
across the window although white and yellow seems unaffected.
 
G

glee

Pete L said:
Thanks Glen. So, would I be right in saying that as XP boots up it
finds that the graphics is not working properly and so stops booting
in normal mode. Then when I boot up in Safe Mode because lots of
processes are not loaded - including parts that need a properly
functioning GPU - it does load ok and apart from a banded screen. As I
write this, in this window all is normal, but at the top of the screen
I can see the banding. Using Firefox I am also keeping an eye on the
tennis in Melbourne. It's just about watchable with vertical bands
across the window although white and yellow seems unaffected.

It's an unusual scenario, but possible. One would expect if the GPU is
faulty and preventing a normal mode start, it would be equally faulty in
Safe Mode, but the fault could be such that it is affecting the higher
resolution displays and causing an error through the display driver in
normal mode....and the driver issue is what is actually forcing the Safe
Mode start.

You might be able to test this by pressing F8 at startup to get to the
boot menu (where you can select Normal, Safe Mode, and so forth) and
select the option "Enable VGA Mode". This will start Windows in normal
mode but without the vendor's display driver, so it will be in the same
video mode as Safe Mode.
http://www.playtool.com/pages/safemode/safemode.html

If you get into normal mode that way, with the "banding", you can try
re-installing the video driver, but I doubt it will make a difference,
since the banding occurs in Safe Mode as well. I think it would
indicate the GPU is the problem.

Your model Vaio is not one that is under recall for faulty nVidia GPUs,
but sadly, there are more affected GPUs than nVidia is admitting to, and
numerous reports indicate your GPU (GeForce 7600) could be affected as
well.....but not covered by Sony or nVidia under their recalls.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sony-nvidia-faulty-GPU-vaio,8435.html
 
P

Pete L

It's an unusual scenario, but possible.  One would expect if the GPU is
faulty and preventing a normal mode start, it would be equally faulty in
Safe Mode, but the fault could be such that it is affecting the higher
resolution displays and causing an error through the display driver in
normal mode....and the driver issue is what is actually forcing the Safe
Mode start.

You might be able to test this by pressing F8 at startup to get to the
boot menu (where you can select Normal, Safe Mode, and so forth) and
select the option "Enable VGA Mode".  This will start Windows in normal
mode but without the vendor's display driver, so it will be in the same
video mode as Safe Mode.http://www.playtool.com/pages/safemode/safemode.html

If you get into normal mode that way, with the "banding", you can try
re-installing the video driver, but I doubt it will make a difference,
since the banding occurs in Safe Mode as well.  I think it would
indicate the GPU is the problem.

Your model Vaio is not one that is under recall for faulty nVidia GPUs,
but sadly, there are more affected GPUs than nVidia is admitting to, and
numerous reports indicate your GPU (GeForce 7600) could be affected as
well.....but not covered by Sony or nVidia under their recalls.http://www..tomshardware.com/news/sony-nvidia-faulty-GPU-vaio,8435.html

Sorry guys to keep on..... Just turned on my laptop now and
everything has started normally! I have done absolutely nothing to the
machine. When I turned off last night I was in Safe Mode with banding
appearign at the sides and top of the screen. I'll leave it on now and
see what happens. Could this be an over heating problem?
 
P

Pete L

Sorry guys to keep on.....   Just turned on my laptop now and
everything has started normally! I have done absolutely nothing to the
machine. When I turned off last night I was in Safe Mode with banding
appearign at the sides and top of the screen. I'll leave it on now and
see what happens. Could this be an over heating problem?

About two hours of trouble free usage and it has now crashed again. At
the time of the crash I was using a Powerpoint presentation.
Presumably a lot of work is required from the GPU and maybe Powerpoint
pushed it over the top. To me logically the GPU either works or it
doesn't. Anybody any other ideas?
 
G

glee

Pete L said:
About two hours of trouble free usage and it has now crashed again. At
the time of the crash I was using a Powerpoint presentation.
Presumably a lot of work is required from the GPU and maybe Powerpoint
pushed it over the top. To me logically the GPU either works or it
doesn't. Anybody any other ideas?

No, you're wrong. The GPU does not necessarily "either work or it
doesn't". There are lots of failures that can be intermittent and that
vary with the heat and the time in use. The nVidia recall of some of
their GPU chipsets is due to exactly that. Inferior soldering causes
the affected chipsets to gradually lose their connection to the
motherboard as prolonged use and heat deteriorate the
connection.....thermal stress.

You might see distorted video, duplicate images, artifacts, crashes, or
blank screen. A damaged and overheated GPU in a laptop can cause
further damage to other parts due to the heat produced in the small
space. As was already stated, if the issues occur in both normal and
Safe Modes, it is not a driver issue, it's hardware. It might be a
faulty connection between the screen and the GPU, otherwise it is likely
the GPU itself.
 

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