bad repair? sony vaio desktop

readytosnap

Hi, I have a sony vaio VGC-LT2S
i had a problem with the graphics and got it repaired by an authorised sony repairer, since the repair i cannot even use the simplest of programmes that need graphics,like windows movie maker the programme says that it cannot start because the video card does not support the required level of hardware acceleration.
Even the screensaver wont work ( requires newer video card or one that's compatible with 3d)
media centre wont work it says card does not have the required 64mb needed.
I am very frustrated about the matter, the pc cost me a lot of money and the repair cost an awful lot too.
anyone shed any light on the matter?

ED E

Who did the repair job?

Have you installed the latest graphics driver for the card?

readytosnap

Hi I didn't want to name the repairer, but they are authorised sony repair centre (there's not too many in Ireland)
Drivers are upto date, checked today.

was told that some chip? (guessing graphics chip?, if there is such a thing) was probably loose due to overheating and was probably resoldered to the motherboard.

I am not great with pc knowledge

readytosnap

I will be bringing it back to them, they said they will rectify the problems, but i was just wondering if any techies on here might of been able to explain what the problems could be in simple terms thats why i posted

ED E

Need more info to be honest.

From the specs its a mobile GPU which is likely integrated so yes it'd be on the motherboard. Old 8 series were terrible for burning themselves up. Thats likely what happened.

If they have the proper equipment they could reflow the chip, but thats not a long term fix, you'd want to replace the motherboard(quite likely not possible in an old machine).

readytosnap

so they just remounted the same chip? but if they did that why is everything not working like it used too? the repair cost 240 euro
would it be worth while replacing the motherboard financially i mean or just cut my losses and get a laptop or something?
thanks for replying
engineers report just says "repaired main board (graphics)"
"reinstalled OS"
"tested ok"

areyawell

.

ED E

readytosnap wrote: »

so they just remounted the same chip? but if they did that why is everything not working like it used too? the repair cost 240 euro
would it be worth while replacing the motherboard financially i mean or just cut my losses and get a laptop or something?
thanks for replying
engineers report just says "repaired main board (graphics)"
"reinstalled OS"
"tested ok"

What they most likely did is reflow the chip. That means they take it off, heat it up very hot for a brief period then resolder it to the board. Done right, you should be dandy for a while at least.

Are you sure the correct nVidia drivers are installed? If the machine boots up and there are no artifacts on screen then its probable that the reason nothing works is that its running a generic driver that only supports the most basic of features.

If the repair wasnt actually successful you should go and get your money back. You could then buy a graphics card if you wanted to and the machine has the slot to support one.

readytosnap

ED E wrote: »

What they most likely did is reflow the chip. That means they take it off, heat it up very hot for a brief period then resolder it to the board. Done right, you should be dandy for a while at least.

Are you sure the correct nVidia drivers are installed? If the machine boots up and there are no artifacts on screen then its probable that the reason nothing works is that its running a generic driver that only supports the most basic of features.

If the repair wasnt actually successful you should go and get your money back. You could then buy a graphics card if you wanted to and the machine has the slot to support one.

Hi, like i said earlier i am not very brainy when it comes to pc's when i have an issue where something wont work like explained above, the pc gave me links to follow to make sure the drivers were upto date, through the control panel, device manager or something along those lines and then the pc searched online for latest drivers and it said that the correct drivers were installed.
if i were to buy a graphics card ( you say there is a slot for one?) how much would one cost roughly, and if i did get one and the chip "broke" again would the pc still work? i mean would the card replace the chip or do they work in conjunction with each other, i really don't want to be throwing money in a pit if you know what i mean, i do like the pc it looks lovely but i cannot afford to throw cash at it and at 240 for the "repair" i can only imagine other repairs will be just as expensive. when you say dandy for a while i am guessing you mean the same issue will happen again?

Freddy Smelly

they charged you €240 to re-solder a damaged chip back onto the motherboard??? Please do name these clowns so others don't go to these guys.

go back and demand a refund... they should have replaced the motherboard which would have cost ALOT less to do and be alot quicker to do.

TerrorFirmer

In this case it sounds like the drivers just aren't installed for sure. Download Nvidia drivers from their website, a search shows it's a 8400MGT you have.

240 is ridiculous though. The entire machine is barely worth that at this stage.

readytosnap

Freddy Smelly wrote: »

they charged you €240 to re-solder a damaged chip back onto the motherboard??? Please do name these clowns so others don't go to these guys.

go back and demand a refund... they should have replaced the motherboard which would have cost ALOT less to do and be alot quicker to do.

I am fairly sure that is what they did, i was chatting the guy yesterday and he said stuff along those lines " chip would of come loose due to high temp and would of been resoldered"

I doubt they are going to refund me?
i am fairly annoyed about the wifi issue too, tehre is a switch on the back for wifi it is turned too on but the wifi will not work (always did before) and no matter how hard i try to mover that switch it will not budge and also the issue with the earphones, when i plug some in the sound still comes out of the pc and not the earphones, its starting to look like i was ripped off alright :mad:
more probs after the repair than before, and they are a long way from my house (over 100 miles) so not counting the 2 trips i had to make for the initial repair I have to do another 2 trips (drop off then collect, he said they would be a few working days) thats another 100 in petrol :eek: one is not a happy camper, should i just cut my losses?

btw A local repairer refused to even look at the pc, I think he may of been a Sony virgin
but you would think that an authorised sony repairer would be someone you could trust.

readytosnap

my pc device manager says it has a "standard vga graphics adapter"

my pc manual says "nVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT GPU"

does this mean they are different? totally confused here.
i went to nvidia to get latest driver and got the following:

The manufacturer of this system requires that you download the driver for your GPU from their support site.

so off to sony support site but i cannot find a download ? driver update anywhere

do they purposely make things this difficult? :mad::mad:

areyawell

ring them up and demand a refund or you will be going to small claims court as it is not working correctly. I really thing you should cut your losses as PC isn't worth a whole lot, maybe 250 euro even if it was working correctly. Probably just better off getting a new dell or something or building your own which works out much cheaper

readytosnap

Well thanks everyone for the advice, i eventually found the drivers for the nvidia and installed them and what was not previously working is now working :D:D:D

so just the issue with wifi and the earphone socket to be resolved now, so i certainly wont be advising anyuone to use the repairer, well not at those prices!!

ED E

Sounds like they may have either swapped the motherboard for a dud one or damaged it while working on it.

How do you know they are sony approved by the way? Sounds like scam artists to me.

Freddy Smelly

readytosnap wrote: »

my pc device manager says it has a "standard vga graphics adapter"

my pc manual says "nVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT GPU"

does this mean they are different? totally confused here.
i went to nvidia to get latest driver and got the following:

The manufacturer of this system requires that you download the driver for your GPU from their support site.

so off to sony support site but i cannot find a download ? driver update anywhere

do they purposely make things this difficult? :mad::mad:

no you need to go to here to get the win vista/7/8 64bit driver.

or here to get the win vista/7/8 32bit driver

i direct linked the driver you need depending on which operating system you have IE: win 7 64bit or win 7 32bit... you can check which version you have by going to control panel > system

readytosnap

ED E wrote: »

Sounds like they may have either swapped the motherboard for a dud one or damaged it while working on it.

I went to the official sony website and searched for authorised repairers and they were listed.

readytosnap

Freddy Smelly wrote: »

no you need to go to here to get the win vista/7/8 64bit driver.

or here to get the win vista/7/8 32bit driver

i direct linked the driver you need

i got the driver thanks from sony website for the nvidia it worked thanks for the help,those idiots should of done that for me or at least explain to me that i would have to do it.

Freddy Smelly

readytosnap wrote: »

i got the driver thanks from sony website for the nvidia it worked thanks for the help,those idiots should of done that for me or at least explain to me that i would have to do it.

the ones in those links will be more upto date than the ones on the sony website as it is nvidia that manufactured the gpu on your laptop