Hi everyone. I have a Vaio E Series (SVE 15116EN) which has an ATI Radeon (7560M, I think). It came with Windows 7 and I recently installed Windows 10 on it. No issues, it was working perfectly fine for weeks after Windows 10. No crash or hang or any trouble at all. One fine morning, just like that,when I turned it on, it gave a Video_TDR_Failure error and went in a reboot loop. The error screen was very 'grainy'. This is a photograph of the screen: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8Uz0ew02QmDfL2Xo2. Said something about ATI ..... sys error.
I tried the 'Assist' button on the laptop but it led to the same reboot loop (so far as I understand, Assist brings up recovery options and BIOS settings on being pressed when the system is off).
I tried running a Knopix Live, off a bootable USB drive. But the system hung up at boot with green colored bands. This is a photograph of hung up Knoppix boot: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Wp2pX7aDhmuQ73pg1
Attaching a monitor to the VGA port did not make any difference. There was no image in case of Knoppix Live while Windows had the same 'grainy' error screen.
I removed the hard drive and installed it on another laptop. The hard drive was read properly allowing me to copy all the data. When I installed the drive from this second laptop in the Vaio, the hard drive activity LED flashed continuously for about 3 - 5 minutes then intermittent activity for a few minutes and then nothing. The screen remained black throughout.
I reseated the RAM. No change.
I pressed and held the power button for up to a minute with battery and adapter removed (it is supposed to clear the BIOS as per some info I found on Sony forums). No change.
Caps lock and num lock can be turned on-off while the system is powered.
There are no beeps. No POST messages at all; the screen remains dark, followed staightaway by the TDR failure error.
When I removed the hard drive and turned on the system without any hard drive or usb or optical drive, I still got no POST message.
Plugging a Windows 10 installation USB at startup (made with Windows Media Creator) did not do anything; the screen remained dark.
Is the GPU dead/dying?
Is there any other method besides 'Assist' button to reach the BIOS settings (pressing F2/F8/F12/Del/esc doesn't do a thing)?
...
PS: I posted this thrice on Sony Community forums and they kept removing my post within minutes without as much as an intimation to me. Weird!
I tried the 'Assist' button on the laptop but it led to the same reboot loop (so far as I understand, Assist brings up recovery options and BIOS settings on being pressed when the system is off).
I tried running a Knopix Live, off a bootable USB drive. But the system hung up at boot with green colored bands. This is a photograph of hung up Knoppix boot: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Wp2pX7aDhmuQ73pg1
Attaching a monitor to the VGA port did not make any difference. There was no image in case of Knoppix Live while Windows had the same 'grainy' error screen.
I removed the hard drive and installed it on another laptop. The hard drive was read properly allowing me to copy all the data. When I installed the drive from this second laptop in the Vaio, the hard drive activity LED flashed continuously for about 3 - 5 minutes then intermittent activity for a few minutes and then nothing. The screen remained black throughout.
I reseated the RAM. No change.
I pressed and held the power button for up to a minute with battery and adapter removed (it is supposed to clear the BIOS as per some info I found on Sony forums). No change.
Caps lock and num lock can be turned on-off while the system is powered.
There are no beeps. No POST messages at all; the screen remains dark, followed staightaway by the TDR failure error.
When I removed the hard drive and turned on the system without any hard drive or usb or optical drive, I still got no POST message.
Plugging a Windows 10 installation USB at startup (made with Windows Media Creator) did not do anything; the screen remained dark.
Is the GPU dead/dying?
Is there any other method besides 'Assist' button to reach the BIOS settings (pressing F2/F8/F12/Del/esc doesn't do a thing)?
...
PS: I posted this thrice on Sony Community forums and they kept removing my post within minutes without as much as an intimation to me. Weird!
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