Video Card Failure?

Hello, I have a Sony Vaio VGN FZ260E, running Windows 7 and have a problem with my video card. Twice my screen has gone black and I have had to hard shutdown while I was playing a video game. (nothing extreme, just a Big Fish match game called Fairies.) I have checked my hard drive and memory for errors, none found. The second time the screen went black it flashed red for a brief instant and i could hear the video game in the background, although it was sticking like a record with a scratch in it. I have used GPU-Z to check my GPU temperature and it shows between 63C and 69C while web browsing and after a few minutes of gameplay had risen to 85C. Is my card failing or is there a simple remedy (other than updated drivers, since SONY is not supporting this model with Windows 7 drivers)

 

Greetings, cheyenne...

If the game is causing the crashes, then the problem is almost certainly the drivers...are you seeing any problems with any other applications? If not, then I'd be willing to bet your video card or mobo graphics unit is okay...

Is this a video card, or mobo graphics, and what type? There may be hacked Windows 7 drivers available...

 

Just did some checking: I'm assuming your Vaio is a laptop, and is running nVidia's GeForce 8400M graphics...if so, you might try downloading nVidia's Win 7 drivers from here and trying them...

If you're running some other graphics unit, find the manufacturer's driver download site, and try any updated drivers you might find - it's not a requirement to use a computer manufacturer's (Sony's) OEM video drivers, especially for troubleshooting purposes...

 

Hello, thanks for the reply and sorry about the incomplete info. Yes it is a laptop with a nvidea 8400m GT. And I have been noticing a few other glitches. As I open or switch tabs in my browser I will see a partial image of the previous tab on occasion and last night as I tried to switch wallpapers the new image overlaid the old for several minutes at each switch and right click on the desktop would not respond. Also my folders were not all loading visually, some were there others had blank spots above the folder or image names. Restarting the machine fixed it for the moment. I had located those drivers with the intent to upgrade,however On The site it specifically says Sony VAIO notebooks are not supported in this release.

 

It's not going to hurt anything to try the nVidia drivers - you can always roll back...

You might also consider uninstalling/reinstalling the original drivers, in case something has become corrupt...even try unstalling the Sony drivers, let Windows supply its own drivers, see if that changes the symptoms...

Did you upgrade the machine to Windows 7, or did 7 come pre-installed?

One other quickie: try connecting an external monitor to the laptop, to rule out the possibility that the screen itself is not the problem...

 

The installer exits, unable to find drivers compatible with my current hardware, so trying the unsupported update wont work. I will try the uninstall/reinstall and see if that works. I did a Windows 7 upgrade install about 2 months ago, first problem I have had. The computer was loaded with Vista Home Premium at purchase and I have played those BigFish games many times in the past (including the past 2 months with Win7 installed) with no issues. Unfortunately, I do not have an external monitor to try right now and only have screen problems it seems while playing(when it goes black) or directly after playing the game. I was thinking of taking the laptop to a repair shop to have the insides cleaned of dust etc, in the hopes that heat is the culprit. I cannot find any diagnostic utility in the Sony for the video card, just CPU and hard drive tests. The only thing I have not tried is a stress test for the video card, afraid to burn my card completely out.

 

Agreed: if everything else is working, I'd sure hate to totally immobilize the machine by stress testing, especially since the only time you're having trouble is while playing a game...

Maybe if/when you take it to a shop, they could hook up a monitor to rule out the screen, but it sure sounds as if this is driver-related...

Keep us posted...