Hello, I own a Sony Vaio (model: VGN-AR51J) and I have a problem with the screen.
When I boot the laptop up in normal mode, the colours are all over the place and lots of green dots are on the screen. The green dots stay there for a very long time, causing the laptop not to boot up or display anything.

However if I boot the laptop up in safe mode, everything seems fine, the screen works again. As I am typing this, I am using safe mode but I will be unable to use the laptop if I boot it up in normal mode.

Here is a video of me booting the laptop in normal mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nik21HIjBs

What can I do?
Thanks,
Edward.

Since it happens before the driver for the video card has been loaded, I think it is a hardware fault.
Take it in for repair if you still have warranty (or even when you don't have it)

Quote from Yisc[NL] :

Since it happens before the driver for the video card has been loaded, I think it is a hardware fault.
Take it in for repair if you still have warranty (or even when you don't have it)

I have just uninstalled the graphics card driver, I am now able to boot up in safe mode but when windows re-installs the driver and I then restart my laptop, it's back to the same problem again.

Would completely restoring the laptop back to it's factory condition help or should I just send it in for repairs?

If re-installing the driver hasn't solved the problem (as said, I think the problem is hardware related), then a restore will probably not solve it either.
You could try a restore to factory defaults if you won't lose much by doing so.
Then you would know for sure if it's hardware related or not.

Okay I've reinstalled windows so now the laptop is back to factory default settings but the problem is still there

Quote from eddy678 :

Okay I've reinstalled windows so now the laptop is back to factory default settings but the problem is still there

Hardware problem then.
So it has to go in for repair.
Probably a fried GPU (possibly because the cooler is cluttered with dust and dirt), but since it's a laptop, it will need a main-board switch to get it fixed.

Managed to finally fix the problem.

If anyone else has the same problem, here's what to do.

1. restart the laptop and press f10 a couple of times.

2. once the sony vaio recovery program has loaded, click 'restore C drive'

3. once the process has finished, the screen should no longer have the weird colour arrangement. However if it does, keep on reinstalling windows, this is probably some sort of hardware glitch.

NOTE: I attempted to reinstall windows 5 times before the laptop finally let me. If you are simply unable to install windows then I suggest taking the laptop in for repairs. Otherwise, follow these steps and you should be fine . Thank you for the help by the way

I am glad it's solved and by the sound of it, it was a driver issue in the end then.
The restore method you used, is a restore to factory defaults, using an image supplied by Sony.
It has Windows pre-installed, along with drivers (probably old ones though)
You only need to run Windows update and need to have a look which drivers you can update.
Good luck and thanks for reporting back to us.

I was on skype and then suddenly the laptop screen just shut off. When I had to reboot the laptop, the colour problem was there again. Is this a graphics card driver bug? :/

In my opinion this has nothing to do with drivers, it just looks like a hardware problem.

My GF had Vaio too (can't remember what type exactly) and it started doing something similar as your laptop, there were green dots all around the screen and system won't boot up (actually it boots up but you can't see or hear anything as your screen is "broken")

So in that case it was one and only option - hardware fault. This looks rather similar to me and it's 3rd Vaio now that I've seen dying the way like this.

Quote from eddy678 :

I was on skype and then suddenly the laptop screen just shut off. When I had to reboot the laptop, the colour problem was there again. Is this a graphics card driver bug? :/

It is a hardware failure and might very well be releated to a cooling issue.
If you have the skills and tools, open up the laptop and clean the cooler that is supposed to keep the GPU cool.
If you don't have the skills and/or tools, take it in for repair and let it be handled by someone with knowledge of hardware.

Quote from eddy678 :

Hello, I own a Sony Vaio (model: VGN-AR51J) and I have a problem with the screen.
When I boot the laptop up in normal mode, the colours are all over the place and lots of green dots are on the screen. The green dots stay there for a very long time, causing the laptop not to boot up or display anything.

However if I boot the laptop up in safe mode, everything seems fine, the screen works again. As I am typing this, I am using safe mode but I will be unable to use the laptop if I boot it up in normal mode.

Here is a video of me booting the laptop in normal mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nik21HIjBs

What can I do?
Thanks,
Edward.

Check the vid below

https://youtu.be/yCmiOAfKZ4Y

Seriously you had to bump a 3 year old post? C'mon dude...