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Alrighty, here is my problem.
It started two days ago. I have not installed any new hardware or programs in quite some time.
The problem started when I was watching a replay in Company of Heroes. Something that I do quite often with no problems. All of the sudden the screen got covered in blue lines going from right to left.
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like that.
I could still make out the game behind the blue lines just barely, and it seemed to have stopped running. After trying a quick control-alt-dlt and getting no response I powered down my laptop manually and turned it back on without a problem.
I repeated my company of heroes replay and received the same issue about 3~ minutes in. (The first time was about 10 minutes in). Again I restarted with no problem. I decided to boot up starcraft 2 and see if the problem was the same, no problem after about 2 hours so I gave up. I tried running Battlefield 2 as well, again no problems after almost 4 hours of running. It just seemed to be isolated to company of heroes.
Now, fast forward to today. I decided to once again for better of for worse, try company of heroes to see if the problem had gone away on its on (wishful thinking).
The problem happened after about 4 minutes of watching a different replay. This time however I was greeted with the screen just going out of focus (think of a very blurry picture) with lots of super blurry artifacts showing up everywhere like a checker board. I restarted my computer again, this time while starting up the screen went black and filled with blue lines. Not good. So I turned it off and gave it a good 5 minutes or so, turned it back on and during startup this time the screen went black and then into a rainbow of colors in line form that appeared to be moving down the screen. (colored lines moving rapidly down the screen and restarting at the top for constant stream)
Well this is no good. Restarted it a few more times. I can hear the windows login sound pop up so this leads me to believe that the computer is still starting properly, just I can't see what is happening.
After a few more restarts I got it to start correctly. I tried to go to Start-->shutdown-->restart to just see what would happen and the same problem happened, Had to restart 6 times to get it to boot correctly.
And here I am, typing this up on the computer at the moment that seems to be running just dandy.
Any idea what could be causing this? I will add the system specs below.
Sony Vaio, FZ series.
Windows Vista Home Edition
NVIDIA GeForce 8400G MT
2 Gigs Memory
Hitachi HTS542525K9SA00 (232 GB, IDE) Hardrive
Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 at 2.10Ghz
Sadly I'm not sure what motherboard it has, the EVEREST program I used to generate the report could not recognize it.
I will also note that when it was having problems I attempted to adjust the screen (up and down) to see if it had any effect due to a connection problem.
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definatly sounds like overheating, try to clean your fans. Blue lines usually means the LCD lights are burnt and that you have to change your screen but you're saying they are not permanent?
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Yep, the blue lines are not permanent. At your advice I just blew out the fans with some compressed air, a healthy bit of dust came out for sure (haven't done in like 4 months). I also grabbed one of my old cooling pads and placed it underneath the laptop.
I honestly hadn't even considered a heat problem. Thanks for the advice.
I'll report back with an update on if the problem continues.
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That's good news for you, what's the model number? should look like VXX-XXXXX, there might be information on Sony's tech support site.
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The model number is VGN-FZ460E.
The computer seemed to be running fine after the cleaning and the cooling pad. So I selected a random lower end game to see what would happen with a little heat and the processor+gpu being pushed a bit. Loaded up League Of Legends and got into a game, within about 60 seconds or so the game crashed to desktop. In the bottom right on the tool bar an error message popped up that said
"<jumble of letters and numbers that I couldn't read in time> Display adapter has stopped responding but has recovered"
The computer is currently on the desktop showing no signs of problems.
EDIT: Rejoined the same game to recreate the problem. Error message is as follows
"Display driver stopped responding and has recovered
Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered."
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Oddly enough when I tried to install the new driver it said it could not find a supported device. The GeForce 8400m GT is on the supported list for the driver. Hmmm. Probably a bad sign.
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huh, there's a small note in the footprint :
The following Sony VAIO notebooks are supported: Sony VAIO F Series with NVIDIA GeForce 310M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M and NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M. Other Sony VAIO notebooks are not supported at this time (please contact Sony for driver support).
So all you have is Sony's website, which lists 2 old drivers;
7.15.11.6760 06/17/2009 (eww) and the stock driver 7.14.10.1295 01/18/2008, check for which you are using and update if necessary.
http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNFZ460E
EDIT : you can also *try* these re-packaged drivers for laptops (they modify the INF file to make your card supported by the installation) http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/ You would obviously gain performance by using latest drivers rather then some 2k9 stuff.
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when you are installing new nvidia drivers, make sure you uninstall the old ones, reboot, and THEN install the new ones. That may clear up the problem of not recognizing a supported device.
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That's almost certainly a failed GPU, I'm afraid. 8000-series chips are particularly prone to the problem.
According to Wikipedia, Sony actually increased their warranty to four years for this laptop model to cover replacement of faulty GPUs. I'm not sure how you claim on this.
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Thanks for the info guys, I may look into that extended warranty.
After dusting the computer out + cooling pad I have yet to experience the black screen with blue lines again.
However I have been getting the crash to desktop with the display adapter error.
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Bot edit.
User was banned for this post.
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EPT
