GPU broken?

[jonathan_vr]

hi, I have a Sony VAIO ( VPCF137HG), its about 10 years old but still runs really well except sometimes it randomly shuts down. I believe I have found the source of this, when I run a benchmark test, it gets to the part where it says ‘’'Bench NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M …" then it opens a tab to run a 3d graphic, at this point it stuts down within a second of this starting. I have repeated this at least 5 times and it always shuts down at the exact same point. when it shuts down the screen just goes black then it turns off, no blue screen etc.. I updated to the latest drivers but this make no difference.

Do you know what the problem is? I think the GPU is not working but im a student and I dont want to go buy a new GPU only to discover that wasnt the problem and that ive now wasted my money.

any help would be appreciated

[veeg]

Hello

That is a pretty old laptop.. It would seem the gpu is the issue..

@Bruce

[Bruce]

with only what you have said, i would also agree, all tests point to the GPU.
as an extra test, I would uninstall the video driver and see if that helps, that is, run it with whatever native drives Windows assigns it.
I would then do a Windows Update and let it decide what driver it needs.
in other words, let’s try Windows drivers rather than the latest NVidia ones and see if that helps.

failing that, I would then go back and use drivers from NVidia from a while ago, trying to find an archived one that did work.

have you opened the underside of the unit and blown it out of any dust build up. may be over heating.
and a last roll of the dice, reload a fresh version of Windows. are you on Windwos 10?

after all that, if the issue persists, I think you can safely say it’s time for a new one.

[phillpower2]

I believe I have found the source of this, when I run a benchmark test, it gets to the part where it says ‘’'Bench NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M …" then it opens a tab to run a 3d graphic, at this point it stuts down within a second of this starting. I have repeated this at least 5 times and it always shuts down at the exact same point. when it shuts down the screen just goes black then it turns off, no blue screen etc..

have you opened the underside of the unit and blown it out of any dust build up. may be over heating.

I suspect that Bruce is correct, benchmarking involves stress testing and that really heats things up, get yourself a can of compressed air, remove the main battery, remove the memory service hatch cover, use the compressed air in short blasts to blow out as much internal dust as you can,reassemble and test, user manual here for removing battery and memory hatch cover, different brand but the principle is the same, see example HP cleaning guide here

[phillpower2]

Any update jonathan_vr?

[phillpower2]

Thread closed due to lack of any feedback from the OP.