Shane McGlaun18 August 2009, 2:48 PM
Sony adds its name to the list of notebook makers affected by faulty GPUs.
NVIDIA is currently in the middle of several
lawsuits over faulty GPUs that were used in notebook computers from popular brands like HP, Apple, and Dell. Sony announced today that it was adding its name to the list of notebook makers that has been affected by the faulty NVIDIA GPUs.
Sony announced that it would be offering free repairs including parts and labor to Vaio notebook owners of machines that have NVIDIA GPUs and are having video related issues like no video on the screen, double images, or distorted video. Sony says that it will not issue any refunds for faulty notebooks (though under Australian law, a consumer may be entitled to a refund or replacement of the product under statutory warranty for a reasonable time.)
Ultimately, the Sony notebooks with defective GPUs could overheat and fail. Sony reports that only a small portion of the Vaio netbooks it made suffer from the issue and those affected are in the VGN-AR1xx, VGN-AR2xx, VGN-AR3xx, VGN-FZ1xx, VGN-FZ2xx, VGN-FZ3xx, VGN-FZ4xx, VGC-LT1xx and VGC-LT2xx lines.
In addition to covering the cost of labor and repairs for affected notebooks, Sony will also be extending the warranty on the machines. The standard 12-month warranty will be extended into a 36-month warranty. Those with Vaio notebooks can get more information on the
Sony support page.