Sony admits having faulty Nvidia chips in a small percentage of its laptops

Sony has offered free repair within four years of the purchase date

 It was July 2008, when news first broke out about some faulty Nvidia GPU chips. Nvidia was quick to react by offering an updated GPU driver which kicks in fans sooner to reduce the thermal stress on the GPU. After this report, HP and Dell came out with a list of machines that was actually affected. Both these companies offered either a patch or extended warranty for these models. Sony, on the other hand remained adamant, saying that its superior products were unaffected by the dreaded faulty GPU packaging. 

It was being said that the problem was with GeForce 8400M, GeForce 8600M, GeForce Go 7000 and 6000 lines, as well as the Quadro NVS 135M and the Quadro FX 360 chips (going by the laptop model number released by HP and Dell). Sony had not taken any steps till now despite the fact that its support forum had been buzzing with chatter about its laptops blanking out, distorting images, and showing random characters

Now, after one whole year, Sony has admitted that "a small percentage" of its VAIO range is indeed afflicted by the issue. The models which are affected belong to the FZ, AR, C, LM and LT line-up. Sony is offering to repair the affected models for free within four years of the purchase date, irrespective of the warranty status. This must be good news for owners of Sony laptops but, indeed a bad one for Nvidia who is still suffering from the after shocks of a year old turmoil.