Dear Valued VAIO customers,

In July 2008, NVIDIA announced that some notebook computers with Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) manufactured with a certain material set are failing in the field at a higher than normal rate. At that time, Sony, together with NVIDIA, conducted investigations into whether the mentioned phenomenon occurred in VAIO models utilising the NVIDIA made GPU. Sony has been closely monitoring this issue from the time NVIDIA made this announcement and in June 2009, we have identified the possibility of the said GPU related symptoms occurring in a limited number of VAIO models.

Affected VAIO notebook computers may exhibit the following symptoms:

·         Computer may display duplicate images on the screen, or exhibit distorted video.

·         The image will not display for a certain period of time after turning on the computer.

For any customer requiring repair of their VAIO notebook computer due to the NVIDIA-GPU issue, Sony will cover the cost of repair (parts and labour) at no charge and in addition to the standard limited 12 month warranty, we will provide a three-year warranty extension for the NVIDIA-GPU.

·         If you are experiencing this issue, please contact your nearest Sony Service Centre.

·         For customers who have already paid for a repair service for your VAIO notebook computer as a result of this issue, please contact your nearest Sony Service Centre.

Please click here to see the list of affected VAIO models.

For related FAQs, please click here.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused. Thank you for your kind understanding and cooperation.

(Privacy policy)

Personal information, such as your name, mailing address and/or telephone number, provided to the Sony service centre shall be kept and used by Sony only for responding to your inquiries related to this announcement, the free repair service mentioned in this announcement and other related services. In certain cases, your personal information may be given to third-party companies to whom Sony has consigned certain elements of such service. In this event, Sony will ensure that such third-party companies abide by the same strict guidelines with regard to the use, storage and disposal of your personal information.

*Please contact your local Sony service centre if you wish to inquire, modify, erase or suspend use of your personal information provided in connection with this announcement.  (Please be advised that in the case of erasing or suspending use of your personal information, Sony might not be able to provide appropriate services in accordance with the purpose of usage mentioned above.)