Screen problems on Sony Vaio PCG 5A1L

[PathKethona]

I got a laptop from a friend and I can't find anything online about it, let alone my problem. It's running a non-genuine/activated copy of Windows Vista. When I turn it on, it seems to work fine at first and then little red or sometimes green or very rarely blue dots appear on the screen and follow the cursor and sometimes stay on the screen. It first started when I tried to connect to the internet and opened Opera. After I restarted the computer the screen, and Windows Recovery screen has black and white lines through it. Now the colors are just plan distorted, like the black "Loading" when the OS first starts has pinks and yellows and reds around it. One time when I started it up in Safe Mode with networking the screen when partially a blue/green color and has a big black section, like a dead LCD, but that also went away when I restarted. At first I thought this was a on board graphics problem, but now I think it's just a screen problem. It stays distorted in the BIOS/Windows Recovery screen too.

Has anyone seen this amount of distorted color before??

I am okay with replacing the monitor and maybe the motherboard to get it to work.

And before anyone complains about the crappy/stolen Vista copy, I've been trying all day to get into the BIOS to change the start up to UBS so I can install Ubuntu. Turns out there is no USB option in BIOS (BIOS is F1 by the way). Now I'm creating a ISO on a CD. Whoopie.

Also, since you're here reading this is there something special about this computer or is the Tablet/Pen options just standard Vista?

Thank you.

 

[vishnu39]

i think yep u have to replace the screen

 

[PathKethona]

i think yep u have to replace the screen

But is it the screen that's broken or just the port on the motherboard? Would it help if I took pictures of the problem?

 

[vishnu39]

ok take the pic ...it may help

 

[PathKethona]

ok take the pic ...it may help

Here is my photobucket. The one with the black/green/blue screen was Safe Mode with Networking. 😵 Do you think this can be a power cord problem? I had it run off of battery for a while and it seemed okay, or was I just lucky?

http/s1190.photobucket.com/user/CommandoEight/library/Random

 

[vishnu39]

i think screen is broken never seen or heard like this ,had any unusual sounds ,hows the temperature ?

 

[aford10]

It looks for sure like the graphics card/onboard graphics is bad. It could also be caused by heat, but if you're seeing it in the BIOS, on a cold boot, I'm thinking it's the graphics package.

 

[PathKethona]

i think screen is broken never seen or heard like this ,had any unusual sounds ,hows the temperature ?

It's quite cool. My Dell D600 runs way hotter than this. I'm going to go for bad graphics card too. I tried some of the programs and it keeps says things like "not enough video memory". I checked in Device Manager and it says "Generic Plug-n-Play". It also said that the south bridge needs a driver though. So does anyone know how to pop the back off this thing and replace it? :lol:

 

[PathKethona]

It looks for sure like the graphics card/onboard graphics is bad. It could also be caused by heat, but if you're seeing it in the BIOS, on a cold boot, I'm thinking it's the graphics package.

Yep cold boot. Oh well, it was free. It shouldn't be that hard to replace right?

 

[aford10]

It is possible to change the graphics package, but it's probably not worth it on that laptop.