First of all, video in a laptop is different from a desktop. A video card in a desktop is very easy as you said, just a card which you put into a slot. Almost all laptops video chips are integrated into the motherboard and to change it would require you to desolder the chip and put a new one, which requires a lot of work and it's expensive. I am very sure your laptop falls into that category, someone please correct me if I am wrong.
Second, as TOPEC said, there is a chance that it's your monitor. Changing the monitor is a bit easier than changing the video chip but you will have to find another monitor of the same model, which could be expensive. There are some stores which specialize in selling used laptop monitors, you can try your luck.
Here are the things I would do:
1)It seems your laptop has a vga port, you can try connecting it to a monitor and see if it has the problem too. If it doesn't, try to back up your files and stuff into an external drive or something. If you can't, you can still buy a case for your hard drive and use it as an external hard drive and you should still be able to access your files.
2)Find out if your laptop still under warranty, either store warranty (if you bought any) or from Sony.
3)You can try to send it to Sony or another shop to diagnose the problem and find out how much it would cost to fix it, but I got a feeling it will be better/cheaper to buy another laptop.
Anyways good luck
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