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From: Haines Brown on 29 Mar 2008 07:34
After running without a problem for some time, suddenly my wife's
machine (debian etch on Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L MB) seems to have stopped
responding to mouse inputs, and then when I exited X, display of
keyboard inputs as well. So I rebooted to find that the X server
wouldn't restart.

When I tried to startx, I got:

(II) Primary device is: PCI 01:00:0
(EE) No devices detected
Fatal Server Error
no screens found

The PCI-E 16X MSI NX8500GT graphics card has a nVidia chip. When I
originally built my wife's machine the nv module didn't work with the
graphics card, and so, for a reason I now forget, I replaced the nv
module with the nVidia proprietary module. Now the X server started, but
the display lacked any red color. So I replaced the MSI card with
another MSI (different model), and things went better, although the
display might have been a bit dark, and recovering from screen saving
was very slow (compared to now when I'm using the vesa module).

The problem now is that the nVidia module has stopped working with the
card, and I'm forced to run her graphics display with only the vesa
module. That does well (she does not need acceleration), but I'd like
to track down the problem because the vesa module might also stop
working at any moment for some reason.

It seems there's an incompatibility between the graphics driver and the
graphics card. Do I blame MSI (saw nothing on line to support this) and
simply replace the card again for a third time, or is there something
else I should check before taking an expensive step that I have no
assurance will work? If I do have to change the card, what would you
recommend as a very reliable and inexpensive PCI-E 16X graphics card?
(other than MSI of course ;-().

--

Haines Brown, KB1GRM



From: Henrik Carlqvist on 29 Mar 2008 08:16
Haines Brown <brownh(a)teufel.hartford-hwp.com> wrote:

> After running without a problem for some time, suddenly my wife's
> machine (debian etch on Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L MB) seems to have stopped
> responding to mouse inputs, and then when I exited X, display of
> keyboard inputs as well. So I rebooted to find that the X server
> wouldn't restart.

> The PCI-E 16X MSI NX8500GT graphics card has a nVidia chip.

> So I replaced the MSI card with another MSI (different model)

So you have a system which worked fine and then stopped working? My guess
is that this is because of a hardware error. Your problem seem graphics
related, but you tried 3 different drivers and 2 different cards so my
next guess is that your motherboard might be flaky.

One easy test to run is memtest86. A memory fault might not be the most
likeyly in this case, but the test is so easy to run that it would still
be my first step in tracking the error.

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc3(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
root(a)localhost postmaster(a)localhost

From: Haines Brown on 5 Apr 2008 08:30
Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist(a)deadspam.com> writes:

> Haines Brown <brownh(a)teufel.hartford-hwp.com> wrote:
>
>> After running without a problem for some time, suddenly my wife's
>> machine (debian etch on Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L MB) seems to have stopped
>> responding to mouse inputs, and then when I exited X, display of
>> keyboard inputs as well. So I rebooted to find that the X server
>> wouldn't restart.
>
>> The PCI-E 16X MSI NX8500GT graphics card has a nVidia chip.
>
>> So I replaced the MSI card with another MSI (different model)
>
> So you have a system which worked fine and then stopped working? My guess
> is that this is because of a hardware error. Your problem seem graphics
> related, but you tried 3 different drivers and 2 different cards so my
> next guess is that your motherboard might be flaky.
>
> One easy test to run is memtest86. A memory fault might not be the most
> likeyly in this case, but the test is so easy to run that it would still
> be my first step in tracking the error.
>
> regards Henrik

I'm slow to reply because I wanted to run for a week with the vesa
driver to see if the display remained stable (I ran memtest86+, which
showed no errors). So far, no evidence of any problem. I suppose I could
just continue with the vesa driver (my wife has no need of acceleration)
and not worry. If the problem of gui freeze returns, then I've really
got a problem, for I would have to replace a brand new decent quality
(Gigabyte) MB with another, and that will put my wife's machine out of
commission for a while, and I'll again be the target of her ire - an
experience that burns itself permanently into one's memory.

--

Haines Brown, KB1GRM



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