Laptop Fault - Anybody know what causes this?

[Rockafella]

I have a faulty Sony Vaio AR21M Laptop.

The laptop has no display and no display output for an external monitor, everything else is working, windows starts up and pre-installed james bond trailer runs after 20mins and can be heard but obviously not seen.

Laptop has been left for 2 months, last week I switched it on and it worked, display was fine and the laptop was working perfect for 2 days then the display went again.

Does anybody know what this fault could be, I asked a repair place and they said it could be a loose wire but probably a new screen is needed?, but if there is no output working for an external monitor to be linked up to it why is it a screen problem?

My limited knowleadge tells me it could be a loose connection, or power supply to the graphics card or the actual graphics card that may be at fault.

But what do I know...

Hope someone can shed some light on this and possibly recommend a repairer if it does need specialist attention.

Thanks for any advice

[Jay]

just to make sure, you are using the FN key combo to get the diplay on the external monitor?

[Rockafella]

just to make sure, you are using the FN key combo to get the diplay on the external monitor?

No I'm not, never linked up an external monitor to a laptop before.

What keys do I need to press then to check it can output to my PC monitor?...

[Rockafella]

Right, I've checked the external output again, pressed FN+F7 which is what I need to do to switch display...nothing happens.

The screen on the laptop is slightly illuminated at the bottom of the screen and the "Vaio" logo just below the screen on the casing of the screen is illuminated when the laptop switches on, this would indicate to me the backlight is working?

I'm going to open up the laptop and check the ribbon cable and connections from the motherboad to the screen, I'm thinking it may just be a loose cable somewhere but i'm only guessing.

[vti_786]

more than likely its your gpu.

so a new motherboard, but you say you get sound which is strange

[GoNz0]

new motherboard needed unless there is a add on vga card, not common on sonys though.

you will get decent money parting it out on ebay toward a new one though.

[vti_786]

if you want, you can try a diy reflow method, more than likely the solder on the gpu has got so hot that they have gone out of place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgTbk...x=0&playnext=1

[Rockafella]

Thanks for the help Guy's, it was just strange it started working again after I'd left it off for 2 months.

I've been quoted £75 plus Vat to fix it, apparently it's a common fault with Laptops.

Can anyone recommend a Laptop repairer so I can get a few quotes if needed?

[BUFF]

what GPU did it us?
nVidia had a well known problem on some of it's GPUs with a very high failure rate.

[Rockafella]

what GPU did it us?
nVidia had a well known problem on some of it's GPUs with a very high failure rate.

It's a Geforce Go 7600...

[bigben1021]

Thanks for the help Guy's, it was just strange it started working again after I'd left it off for 2 months.

I've been quoted £75 plus Vat to fix it, apparently it's a common fault with Laptops.

Can anyone recommend a Laptop repairer so I can get a few quotes if needed?

Can't recommend anyone, but that sounds like a good price to get your laptop sorted if this is a hardware fault!