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Hey there, I was wondering if this ever happened to anyone here.
The laptop has less than a year (though it's older than that, about a year or two - I think it was released in 2006, ta Sony Vaio TX5XN). Anyway, one day, without being hit, or dropped, or had any water poured into it, this screen problem appeared. At first it was a small line, the next day it covered bottom to top. Does anyone have any idea of what this is? Sony refused to take the laptop in for repair and demanded 800 euros to do it, out of warranty.

I admit that, being around computers for longer than I know, I've never seen this happen. Yet I have a feeling that the case was overlooked, maybe because it was an older model, and they may not have replacement parts left or they might be expensive to get.

Have any of you ever seen something like this? I'm still waiting for them to justify how they figured out it was misused rather than a hardware failure.

Does this appear in POST?
Have you reinstalled/updated drivers? Changed resolution?

Only time ive seen anything similar was a laptop with a damaged cable (around the hinge - wobbling the screen/lid wuld sometimes sort it out ... for a short time)

Yep, it showed up in Bios, different res, different drivers, nothing at all. They reinstalled my OS (so now I have Vista Business again) and it's still there.

The thing is, it shows even when the screen's black. Which is very odd, I'm thinking it's burned into the screen.

If it's showing in the POST (not sure what you mean by "when the screen is black"), then it is a hardware failure.
You've either got a dodgy connection, or damaged screen, IMHO.
Does it flicker or change at all? this would lead to a connection.
If it is stable, more likely the screen is farked.

Most times, it is more expensive to replace the screen than it is to replace the whole laptop. :(

Part of your screen is damaged, if your lucky its only one of the wires to the LCD itself. Take off the bezel and the plate above your keyboard and unhook the wire to to the mobo (not the one to the back light). Straiten it and look for burns / Kinks and reinstall it. If it work Great if not buy a new set of wires (should run like 15 USD) and replace if that doesn't work your looking at a $300 bill unless you feel comfortable soddering your LCD.

Well, actually I'm going to keep buggering Sony, as it's still inside the warranty, first of all, and secondly because the laptop was not subject to any misuse, as they say.

It doesn't flicker or change, it's just burned into the LCD even when the screen is turned off. I'm sure it's a hardware failure caused by a faulty part, because I rarely used the laptop at full brightness, and I didn't leave the screen on for extended periods of time.

At this time, I'm writing a mail to the responsible of Vaio Repair in Europe, because I paid a pretty buck for this PC in February this year. Which is another reason why I'm not too keen on opening it up - besides, it's got a lot of "special" screws which would require special tools.

(I'm only going to open it up when warranty is void to replace the HDD - a 4200 rpm 1.8" one - for an SSD, if they're within my budget)

Thanks for the replies, I'll try to keep this updated!

.. I think I've seen this before...

But the case was very grim and the owner of the laptop disappeared shortly after. He visited a website and the visage of a dead man's face appear as a small picture on a tabbed window. He clicked the tabbed window and the picture came up full screen. The dead man's eyes opened up revealing blank, cold, dead eyes. Then the screen went black and he had to restart his computer and reinstall his OS. Slowly over the next few weeks these lines showed up... just like yours. They bleed down his screen and stayed there permanently burned into the LCD monitor. One day I came to his house and he was just gone. Just a completely red screen on his laptop, bright as day.

Watch the Ring recently?

In the UK we have a general 12 month law on new products.

The problem looks like bad connections. You can see that individual pixels are dead or dying. That means voltage problems. The pattern is highly linear.

If you had the right tools I think like Clthomps you could replace the wiring loom easily and cheaply. It would be a bit fiddly.

What Sony will probably do is just replace the entire screen and attached wiring in one go. Less work.

If it's still inside warranty, then Sony are trying to rip you off. Read the terms of your warranty carefully to make sure, though. The only limit my company does is a maximum of one battery replacement...

I do Dell warranty repairs for a living, and this is a standard thing for me to replace. See it all the time.

...proprietary screws. Sony are bitches with that though.

IF Sony do take it in for warranty repair/replacement, then get your data off it before you send it!
They may well send you a new laptop, and it is up to you to look after yur data.
I presume you make regular back-ups anyway ( ) but make another set just to be sure!

Here in PT we have 24 months warranty, and any time it spends out of my hands will accumulate (i.e. it's out one month, it's like the warranty gets another month).

I already sent it to Sony and they told me it was due to mishandling. I got it back, took some pictures, and sent a mail yesterday to Vaio Assistance's european chief. Still waiting for an answer. Worst case scenario, I'll take it to a tech to prove it wasn't my fault and then I'll press charges against Sony.

And I did take my data off, it was shipped back with Vista re-installed. And now the power plug works erraticaly (the tip that connects it to the laptop has to be "pushed up" to keep feeding the laptop). I have the same problem in my LG, and I'm probably going to send both in for repair again.

I got the Vaio back yesterday and I'm still uninstalling bloatware. I think I'll upgrade to XP... again

@Typeline: sorry to hear about your friend

And once again, thanks for the answers. Most computer forums where I've been gather little to no feedback.

And arctik_firangi... you've seen this kind of damage before? I never saw it, even while surfing google for damaged screens, but I agree that they look like a lot of dead pixels.

I've seen the same pattern of dead pixels, but now I notice you mentioned it's the same when the LCD is off? That is slightly different, but IMO it's further proof of a screwed LC module rather than the inverter/cable, and it's not an uncommon occurance at all.

They're probably just upset that you uninstalled Vista. Dell also prescribes 'OS Reinstall!' for basically everything before they'll happily replace a part - unless the malfunctioning part happens to prevent that from being attempted.
It's understandable why, but customers don't really like it at all, especially when it's pointless. By the time I arrive, tech support has already had them 'try' it over the phone, and they're in a bad mood from the start.

On the other hand, a complete system replacement is almost unheard of. I've heard of it in person exactly twice, and I deal with this crap every working day.

Good luck either way!

I don't mind they re-installed Vista, I was counting on it and besides, SP2 is released this week so it'll probably boost some parts of it.

What do you mean by complete system replacement? Sony replacing my whole laptop? Given it's problems, I think that there are a lot of parts that have to be replaced, so either they'll do it, or they should at least replace the Vaio. I wouldn't mind getting a same classed item - a Vaio TZ or a TT would've made me happy enough

I have no knowledge to add, however, I do have the ever-popular Internet anecdote, to be taken with the appropriate amount of NaCl.

Buddy of mine had a Sony Vaio. Said he tried to close the screen on it. Gently grasped the screen by the plastic cover, in the center. Began to close it, and the screen cracked. All the way down, starting from where he'd grasped it. Now, this guy works with electronics fr a living; so he's not exactly ham fisted. So he gets on the phone to Sony, and 4 hours later they confess they've had a ton of issues just like that, and it's a design flaw.

All my company uses Sony Vaios and I've never heard of such a problem. They are pretty solid machines.

I've had one for a few years and taken it all around the world without any problems other than the usual Windoze crap. I mean I've had no hardware problems.

Sony build good hardware. They've got 50 years experience in electronics.

My personal machine is a Mac but that's because if I have a choice I want a real operating system.

I didn't have any problems either, up 'till this. Sony is reliable, but if a problem like this comes up and it isn't willingly fixed by them, then it's time to revaluate my views on them and their products.

If I didn't want the best I wouldn't pay for it.