Issue with video card/drivers

[makeyw]

Hi,

I have a VPCEC2S0E with ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5470 Graphics.

All worked fine until recently but yesterday the screen began to flicker while i was watching a video.

Gradually more and more of the screen became black (buttons, images). (Was very odd!)

I rebooted and after the windows logo i am left with a black screen but there is a mouse pointer.

I am able to log in...just typing my password does seem to get me to my desktop.

I  can just about make out the start menu (Enough to shut it down again)  ...even hovering over the task bar seems to cause a flicker in the  blackness but not enough to read anything that pops up.

If i run in safe mode all works fine.

I've disabled the drivers for the graphics card and managed to get a working laptop again with the Standard VGA adapter drivers.

I've tried reinstalling the ATI drivers from Sony and it just causes the same issue...

I've restored back to about 3 days ago and it's still the same issue....

Any ideas?

[Blencogo]

There is a new driver 8.723.8.2 dated 19 November 2010 - have you tried that?

http://support.vaio.sony.eu/computing/vaio/downloads/updates/index.aspx?m=VPCEC2S0E_WI&l=en_GB

[makeyw]

Hi..thanks for looking in to this..

Yeah just tried the driver on the link you sent and still no luck...

That said, this time it's not JUST a black screen...the screen is majorly corrupted with various colours occasionally appearing as i move the mouse pointer over various things (like the start bar).

Very strange...i'm wondering if it's the video card that's screwed?

[Blencogo]

It does seem strange.

It sounds like a phone call to Sony Support on Monday!!