Sony vaio graphics problem.
Discussion
Hi all, thought I would ask in here as there seems to be a good few people on here much more clued up than my with computers. I have a Sony vaio e17 series laptop (model no SVE1712Z1EB) that has developed a problem with the graphics chip? It is a amd radeon HD 7500m/7600m and I keep getting a blue screen with tdr failure as the cause. It started off every now and then but now its basically unusable.
I have recently upgraded the hard drive to a ssd, the place that fitted it reinstalled windows 10 and all correct drivers etc and it worked well for a few days but then the issue returned. The repair guy said that as the amd graphics is soldered in its basically not upgradable and is no longer compatable with the latest softwares.
Does anyone know of a possible fix for this? I do quite like this laptop, its nice and fast with a great screen, bluray player etc and would prefer to fix or upgrade this rather than buy new. Any suggestions gratefully received! Thanks.
I have recently upgraded the hard drive to a ssd, the place that fitted it reinstalled windows 10 and all correct drivers etc and it worked well for a few days but then the issue returned. The repair guy said that as the amd graphics is soldered in its basically not upgradable and is no longer compatable with the latest softwares.
Does anyone know of a possible fix for this? I do quite like this laptop, its nice and fast with a great screen, bluray player etc and would prefer to fix or upgrade this rather than buy new. Any suggestions gratefully received! Thanks.
I don't think you will have any luck, sorry. I doubt the GPU is actually physically broken - they either work or they don't and you would get a completely black screen if it had failed. The laptop is 8 years old now? I note that you can't get updated AMD drivers for it and it might be that with the latest version of Windows 10, the legacy drivers included for your laptop don't work properly. You could try the Catalyst software here: https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/amd-radeon... to see if it helps?
Even if you could find someone to swap the GPU, the cost I'm sure would be more than buying a working replacement on Ebay.
Even if you could find someone to swap the GPU, the cost I'm sure would be more than buying a working replacement on Ebay.
This was a well known design fault on the soldering of the gfx chips on Sony’s of that time. On mine it was an Nividia chip.
I was lucky and got mine swapped out from John Lewis at the time (I think it was about 5 years old at the time!) and also got money from Nividia.
You can get it reballed but the price was fairy high.
I was lucky and got mine swapped out from John Lewis at the time (I think it was about 5 years old at the time!) and also got money from Nividia.
You can get it reballed but the price was fairy high.
If it's not fixable then I will have to buy a replacement,it is a shame as I particularly like everything about this laptop. A replacement with 17 hd screen, blu-ray drive, i7, 8gb ram, SSD etc is going to be pricey, hence I'd be happy to spend a couple hundred to fix this and carry on using it.
Been usingy my other halfs spare Chromebook for internet duties and it's just not as nice to use, slow, crap graphics, small screen etc.
Been usingy my other halfs spare Chromebook for internet duties and it's just not as nice to use, slow, crap graphics, small screen etc.
jackthelad1984 said:
If it's not fixable then I will have to buy a replacement,it is a shame as I particularly like everything about this laptop. A replacement with 17 hd screen, blu-ray drive, i7, 8gb ram, SSD etc is going to be pricey, hence I'd be happy to spend a couple hundred to fix this and carry on using it.
Been usingy my other halfs spare Chromebook for internet duties and it's just not as nice to use, slow, crap graphics, small screen etc.
Any old gaming laptop from the last few years will do you what you want part with the possible exception of the Blu-ray drive which modern computers won’t have. You already have the SSD which you can take out of your existing laptop and eight gig of ram is low end nowadays. Therefore I don’t think you’ll have to spend too much money to replace it with something similar. Been usingy my other halfs spare Chromebook for internet duties and it's just not as nice to use, slow, crap graphics, small screen etc.
I will look into the Linux idea, not something I have ever used before or done but could be an option.
I don't use the laptop for gaming, generally just internet duties and the odd film here and there (handy in caravan), I'm not against replacing it but seeing as everything else about the laptop is fine I'd rather repair it if possible, I just like using it, I like the big screen, size of the laptop, it's fast and probably over specced for what I actually use it for now but it's one of the few things I've got that I just like if you get what I mean.
I don't use the laptop for gaming, generally just internet duties and the odd film here and there (handy in caravan), I'm not against replacing it but seeing as everything else about the laptop is fine I'd rather repair it if possible, I just like using it, I like the big screen, size of the laptop, it's fast and probably over specced for what I actually use it for now but it's one of the few things I've got that I just like if you get what I mean.
If it’s on the latest graphics driver available for the GPU, it’s worth rolling back to an older one to see if the issue only occurs with this version.
Had some funny issues with old AMD GPUs in Windows 10 20H2, that weren’t present in earlier versions. The shipped drivers didn’t work properly - I tried an earlier driver I’d used in 1903 and it fixed the issue.
Had some funny issues with old AMD GPUs in Windows 10 20H2, that weren’t present in earlier versions. The shipped drivers didn’t work properly - I tried an earlier driver I’d used in 1903 and it fixed the issue.
jackthelad1984 said:
I will look into the Linux idea, not something I have ever used before or done but could be an option.
I don't use the laptop for gaming, generally just internet duties and the odd film here and there (handy in caravan), I'm not against replacing it but seeing as everything else about the laptop is fine I'd rather repair it if possible, I just like using it, I like the big screen, size of the laptop, it's fast and probably over specced for what I actually use it for now but it's one of the few things I've got that I just like if you get what I mean.
Try something like Linux Mint to see how it performs - I'm typing this on an 11 year old HP as we speak on such a set up, runs better than my work 2020 model (on Windows 10) for browsing and open office etc. At least you'll know whether the machine is faulty. I don't use the laptop for gaming, generally just internet duties and the odd film here and there (handy in caravan), I'm not against replacing it but seeing as everything else about the laptop is fine I'd rather repair it if possible, I just like using it, I like the big screen, size of the laptop, it's fast and probably over specced for what I actually use it for now but it's one of the few things I've got that I just like if you get what I mean.
An SSD does make a huge improvement however.
If you did go Linux, keep the old drive and stick it in via a USB to SATA cable and you can keep all your old data etc.
If you download Mint and then use something like Yumi to write the image: https://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-c... it's really easy. I think Yumi will even download and write it for you.
You never know, it might buy you a little longer, I hate upgrading (hence 11 years) as unless you're gaming or video editing, there's simply no need. Just bought my son a new gaming set up which was stupidly expensive for something that'll date quickly.
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