NVIDIA card disappeared from laptop

I have a Sony VAIO VGN-AR61MR laptop with an NVIDIA 8400M GT video card.

It has Windows 7 (originally Windows Vista was installed)

Few weeks ago video acceleration stopped to work. Its video is recognized as VGA. When I install NVIDIA drivers downloaded from NVIDIA website it tells me there is no compatible hardware.

Install NVidia driver

Device Manager

enter image description here

All 3D apps stopped to work. I tried many things except a Windows re-install. It would be hard to get all software installed back.

UPDATE

I was able to install driver from Sony UK website. There is Vista 32-bit and it worked on Windows 7 32-bit as well. It improved the performance but I am still willing to install original NVIDIA drivers. They do not install with the same error.

Max

Posted 2013-09-22T18:46:56.510

Reputation: 249

1did you try to do that automatic driver update, and not that manual selection atleast once? – Sickest – 2013-09-22T18:51:28.953

Yes. It was first what I did. – Max – 2013-09-22T18:54:01.577

Also I downloaded many version of that driver. (not only 320.49) but new betas and old versions. 4 or 5 version in total. Always same result. – Max – 2013-09-22T18:55:29.630

1how old is this laptop? – Sickest – 2013-09-22T18:56:23.917

1@Max You said you've tried other driver versions. The one on the screenshot is fairly old. Have you tried version 327.23? – happy_soil – 2013-09-22T19:00:20.637

Laptop is 3 or 4 years old. I do not remember exactly except it was bought in august. I can't remember numbers. I am on different flow right now. I will check if I tried the latest one. – Max – 2013-09-22T19:09:05.487

@happy_soil Yes. I had tried that driver as well and it does not work even after I got Sonys driver installed and got 3D working. Of course Sonys driver is old (20/02/2008) and I would like to install recent driver. – Max – 2013-09-23T08:43:59.567

1Check the BIOS if it sees the video card. If it doesn't, then chances are that it's malfunctioned like @Sickest said. – happy_soil – 2013-09-23T09:00:33.813

@happy_soil I updated post. Vista driver from Sony UK website installed. There is not much options in BIOS but newest BIOS for another laptop has no options at all. So I am not sure what to expect to find in BIOS. I start thinking that Sony got NVidia special chip that default driver does not recognize. Or I have to find very old driver. Driver from Sony is dated 2008. 5 years old! The oldest driver from NVidia is not that old but it has GeForce 8M in list of supported cards. I guess my card is 8M. GeForce 7 is not already supported. So may be some 8M cards are not supported as well. – Max – 2013-09-23T11:14:13.177

Yeah I'm afraid it sounds like it has malfunctioned. One of the duties the BIOS does is it enumerates all components that are installed on the system. If it doesn't see it, then it's inexistent. – happy_soil – 2013-09-23T11:45:04.500

Answers

IF you see blue lines not blue screen. Then it is common problem with with VAIO laptops with NVIDIA video.

You have to re-place GPU or re-weld, re-ball it.

There is a number of vendors on eBay who offer such service

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=VAIO+re-balling&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.XVGN-AR61MR+reballing&_nkw=VGN-AR61MR+reballing&_sacat=0

Read about problem that GPU. One vendor on ebay had a nice photo with micrscope. It showed GPU legs. They are not weld well enough and most of these models are onverheating and burning legs.

Artem

Posted 2013-09-22T18:46:56.510

Reputation: 136

I'm pretty sure your video card hardware has malfunctioned, if you've tried a number of drivers and the laptop being that old. Video card driver don't just randomly disappear like that.

you could try to find a nvidia driver cleaner, where it finds any scattered files or drivers and removes them, then try installing again, but i doubt that's going to work.

your last resort is to reinstall windows and see if maybe windows is corrupted somehow. or revert to an older system resort point if you have that activated.

Sickest

Posted 2013-09-22T18:46:56.510

Reputation: 2 569

That's no hardware issue or malfunction. The hardware simply isn't supported by the reference drivers. – Mario – 2014-05-04T07:51:34.933

You can't use the official/reference drivers since those notebooks aren't supported. This is no hardware issue or malfunction.

From the official driver notes under "Additional Information" (emphasis mine):

Exceptions:

Notebooks supporting Hybrid Power technology are not supported (NVIDIA Optimus technology is supported).

The following Sony VAIO notebooks are included in the Verde notebook program: Sony VAIO F Series with NVIDIA GeForce 310M, GeForce GT 330M, GeForce GT 425M, GeForce GT 520M or GeForce GT 540M. Other Sony VAIO notebooks are not included (please contact Sony for driver support).

Fujitsu notebooks are not included (Fujitsu Siemens notebooks are included).

Mario

Posted 2013-09-22T18:46:56.510

Reputation: 3 685