If you happen to have a Sony Vaio laptop, particularly if your graphics are playing up and you’re seeing distorted images and videos, duplicate images or even a blank screen, then you had better pay attention.
Sony has just said that some of their Vaio laptops have faulty Nvidia graphics chips installed in them and that it’s possible for these laptops to overheat and ultimately fail.
As a result of this, Sony is offering free repairs and an extended three year warranty on some of their Vaio models that contain Nvidia graphics chips but no refunds are being offered.
The problem appears to be connected to faulty die used in the chips and packaging material that is not up to scratch, a problem that Nvidia first reported last year.
This is not good news for Sony and certainly not for Nvidia who is feeling the pinch financially as they pay out on warranty charges and product replacement costs.
Several other computer makers have also had to suffer the embarrassment not to mention the hassle of having to deal with faulty Nvidia chips in their computers including the likes of HP, Dell and Apple all of who reported faults in 2008.
Ok so admittedly it’s only a small percentage of Sony Vaio laptops that are affected but that’s of no consolation if it’s yours.
In a statement issued by Sony last week the company says they have been “looking into any possible effect to Vaio notebooks with Nvidia graphic processors. Until recently we had not identified any Vaio models that were affected by this issue.”
The statement continues “after closely monitoring the situation, Sony has now determined that a very small percentage of Vaio computers with the Nvidia graphics chips may experience this issue.”
If you want to check if your laptop is one of those that could be affected then these are the Sony Vaio models that have the Nvidia graphics chips installed:
* VGN-AR1xx
* VGN-AR2xx
* VGN-AR3xx
* VGN-FZ1xx
* VGN-FZ2xx
* VGN-FZ3xx
* VGN-FZ4xx
* VGC-LT1xx
* VGC-LT2xx
.
And if yours has got problems than of course Sony will repair it and extend the warranty on the graphics chip.
Fair enough, but what I want to know is if all the other companies, including Nvidia, reported the fault last year, how come it is only coming to light with Sony now?
