Problem with Vaio Laptop

Hey all,

Well here is the problem.. the computer's LCD tv would periodically start blinking (from black to whatever should normally be on the screen)

thus far I have updated the driver for the graphics card... other than that I don't have any other ideas... does this sound like it could be a LCD issue? Graphics card issue? or could it be a problem with the connection between the two?

On a semi unrelated note.. about the time this started happening.. the laptop had one of those directx screensavers.. and when it would turn on it would display "Direct X not available" instead of what the screensaver would be (in this particular case it was the 3d rotating text screen saver)

So any other ideas? Any way to diagnose this to see where the problem is... such as some type of hardware diagnostic software?... I know that DELL has something in the BIOS..but i don't know how to get to it with the Sony Vaio


thanks all