The display on my laptop is now officially hosed. I talked with hartree and we looked at the symptoms and took the laptop apart and it would appear that the video card is glitched. Since on Vaios (it’s a Sony Vaio PCG-NVR23) the video card is integrated into the motherboard, this makes for massive ugliness. So. We can try to work through Sony to repair it (price to be determined but surely not small since it’s out of warranty). We can try to find a Vaio on eBay with a broken display and remove the motherboard. Or we can buy a new laptop. I hate the notion of the later option – the damn thing is only fourteen months old. Grrr.
Anyway, obviously my online presence is going to be limited for the next few days.
… even in the future, nothing works!
It reminds me of the line in Space Balls, near the end of the movie where they are trying to stop the ship from self destructing and find an out of order tag on the cancel button. “…even in the future, nothing works!” Or something like that. Don’t hold me to the actual words, and yes, I know I left one out!
Sorry to hear about your lap top, but it does seem that things are a lot less trustworthy than they used to be. Here we are, in the future we heard about as kids… well, no personal helicopter for me, yet, that’s a bummer. But anyway, it seems like the future is a lot more flakier and cheaply made than I thought it would be!
Best of luck in getting your problems resolved in a timely and financially reasonable manner. Take care!
— Bob
*ack*!
Sorry to hear you’re having the laptop troubles. Hope you have resolution soon!
grateful for my Toshiba laptop, which has been running for almost 3 years, even after a 3-foot drop onto a cement floor!!!
Ack. Sony’s business electronics unit slips a little further in my already-extremely-low opinion of them. *hugs*
Will the machine work normally using the video out connector?
Nope, no dice. No signal at all through the video out, unfortunately.
I suspect that this is going to mean a new laptop, given what it takes to fix/replace motherboards. Well, if nothing else, I suppose we can track down a parts laptop, put the new board into this one, and use it for MFF. Still, it would be nice if we could find a way out that doesn’t cost $800-1,000.
You might get lucky on Ebay, seeing as you don’t need an intact screen. Usually a few broken-LCD parts machines floating about for peanuts, bought a few myself. I’d estimate $50-$150 for a complete parts unit sans working screen, $<75 if the disk/battery/cord is missing.
If the unit has any fan mountings that aren’t populated (a common but strange practice in laptops), putting fans in them could save your new parts from the same fate.
Something to try if you give up hope on the board…
Wash it in hot water, no scrubbing, just let water pressure clean under and around the chips. Drip dry, then imediately sink it into a pan of rubbing alcohol (dries off the water, prevents corosion). Let it dry (wait a few days) completely. Re-assemble, and test. Could just be some conductive cruft that got into one of the connector pins or something.
Sorry for the ultra late reply but i will do my best to get their tonight.
*grins* don’t think that pimping this out will save you once you do decide to show back up. Hell…at this rate, I might just have you run reg. 😉