Problem with Sony laptop. It turns on fine but after 10 minutes horizontal pink and blue lines appear.?

Question

I took it to a computer tech to fix last summer and shelled out $350 to fix what he said was a Video Card problem. It worked fine for 3 months but afterwards the same problem happened again. Sadly his warranty only lasted for 3 months.

I've been getting different analysis from the video card problem to maybe screen, motherboard, or fan. I don't know if it's the screen since it works fine at first.

Is there any way to fix it or should I attempt to buy a new laptop though I'm broke right now? Thanks!

Answer 1

It could be a lot of problems:

1) The screen itself may have some component that fails when it gets warm. If you use an external display the problem will not happen. If you change resolution on the internal display the lines will probably stay about where they are because they will be faults in the row or column drivers on the screen..

2) The video card may have some component that fails when it gets warm. If you use an external display the problem may not happen. If you change resolution on the internal screen the problem may go away or the lines may move 'cos you'll be using different bits of memory and different demands on the video electronics.

3) If the cooling fan has failed you'd probably know that 'cos the fan mostly is there to keep the processor cool... and you should be able to hear it running. If it fails it'll probably overheat and shut down or fry your laptop.

Trouble is, the 'video card' is mostly built onto the motherboard in laptops (= very expensive) and a new screen is going to set you back loads too. You have to decide if getting it properly repaired is worth it... depends how good the laptop is, how much you like it and how much a replacement will cost. If it's a screen fault, could you live with an external screen for a while?

You could buy a cheap laptop for not much more than you paid for a 3-month repair on that one... I know Sony is one people like, but could you live with a cheap one? You may even be able to sell your faulty one on ebay as faulty... have a look what broken laptops sell for and see if it's worth considering that as an option.