[gentoo-user] [OT] Laptop graphics card broken??

[gentoo-user] [OT] Laptop graphics card broken??

[José González Gómez]

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Sorry for the off track, but I'm totally lost regarding this, and I thought
maybe somebody could shed some light on this...

I've got an Acer Aspire 1520 with an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5700 and a dual
Gentoo Linux/Windows install. The problem is that the graphics card seems to
be broken, at least partially: whenever I start the laptop the screen is
off, and here comes the weird part, if I select Gentoo from the grub boot (I
know where the options are, so I can select it even with the screen off) the
screen keeps off, but if I select Windows, the screen gets on, but only when
Windows reach the login screen, not before. By the way, the laptop fell some
time ago from around a meter high, but after that kept on working, although
I had some sporadic hangs on Linux, with the screen showing kind of light
snow noise, almost always playing Battle of Wesnoth.

The only logical explanation I can think of, unless I'm totally retarded and
missing something clearly obvious, is that the card (or the screen) seems to
be working only at some resolution/color depth/frequency combination (
1280x800@60, 32bit), and that I'm not using the working combination at
Linux, but this seems really strange and I haven't heard of anything like
this before.

Anyone has any idea on this? What could I check to further diagnose the
problem? Any solution? Am I missing anything?????

Thanks in advance, best regards
Jose

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[gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Laptop graphics card broken??

[Harm Geerts]

On Friday 20 October 2006 21:10, José González Gómez wrote:
> Sorry for the off track, but I'm totally lost regarding this, and I thought
> maybe somebody could shed some light on this...
>
> I've got an Acer Aspire 1520 with an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5700 and a dual
> Gentoo Linux/Windows install. The problem is that the graphics card seems
> to be broken, at least partially: whenever I start the laptop the screen is
> off, and here comes the weird part, if I select Gentoo from the grub boot
> (I know where the options are, so I can select it even with the screen off)
> the screen keeps off, but if I select Windows, the screen gets on, but only
> when Windows reach the login screen, not before. By the way, the laptop
> fell some time ago from around a meter high, but after that kept on
> working, although I had some sporadic hangs on Linux, with the screen
> showing kind of light snow noise, almost always playing Battle of Wesnoth.
>
> The only logical explanation I can think of, unless I'm totally retarded
> and missing something clearly obvious, is that the card (or the screen)
> seems to be working only at some resolution/color depth/frequency
> combination ( 1280x800@60, 32bit), and that I'm not using the working
> combination at Linux, but this seems really strange and I haven't heard of
> anything like this before.
>
> Anyone has any idea on this? What could I check to further diagnose the
> problem? Any solution? Am I missing anything?????

You could try a linux livecd and see what that does.
And are there any settings regarding the screen in the BIOS?

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [OT] Laptop graphics card broken??

[José González Gómez]

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2006/10/20, Harm Geerts <harmgeerts@home.nl>:
>
> On Friday 20 October 2006 21:10, José González Gómez wrote:
> > Sorry for the off track, but I'm totally lost regarding this, and I
> thought
> > maybe somebody could shed some light on this...
> >
> > I've got an Acer Aspire 1520 with an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5700 and a dual
> > Gentoo Linux/Windows install. The problem is that the graphics card
> seems
> > to be broken, at least partially: whenever I start the laptop the screen
> is
> > off, and here comes the weird part, if I select Gentoo from the grub
> boot
> > (I know where the options are, so I can select it even with the screen
> off)
> > the screen keeps off, but if I select Windows, the screen gets on, but
> only
> > when Windows reach the login screen, not before. By the way, the laptop
> > fell some time ago from around a meter high, but after that kept on
> > working, although I had some sporadic hangs on Linux, with the screen
> > showing kind of light snow noise, almost always playing Battle of
> Wesnoth.
> >
> > The only logical explanation I can think of, unless I'm totally retarded
> > and missing something clearly obvious, is that the card (or the screen)
> > seems to be working only at some resolution/color depth/frequency
> > combination ( 1280x800@60, 32bit), and that I'm not using the working
> > combination at Linux, but this seems really strange and I haven't heard
> of
> > anything like this before.
> >
> > Anyone has any idea on this? What could I check to further diagnose the
> > problem? Any solution? Am I missing anything?????
>
> You could try a linux livecd and see what that does.


The same, the screen keeps off... anyway, this seems to be random: I have
just restarted the computer while making tests and one of the times the
screen functioned normally.

And are there any settings regarding the screen in the BIOS?


I cannot access the BIOS, as the screen shows nothing until Windows starts.

Thanks, best regards
Jose

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Laptop graphics card broken??

[Richard Fish]

On 10/20/06, José González Gómez <jgonzalez.openinput@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've got an Acer Aspire 1520 with an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5700 and a dual
> Gentoo Linux/Windows install. The problem is that the graphics card seems to
> be broken, at least partially: whenever I start the laptop the screen is
> off, and here comes the weird part, if I select Gentoo from the grub boot (I
> know where the options are, so I can select it even with the screen off) the
> screen keeps off, but if I select Windows, the screen gets on, but only when
> Windows reach the login screen, not before.

Does your Gentoo system boot into X, or to a console?

Have you tried plugging in an external monitor to see what is displayed there?

-Richard

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Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Laptop graphics card broken??

[José González Gómez]

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2006/10/21, Richard Fish <bigfish@asmallpond.org>:
>
> On 10/20/06, José González Gómez <jgonzalez.openinput@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I've got an Acer Aspire 1520 with an NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5700 and a dual
> > Gentoo Linux/Windows install. The problem is that the graphics card
> seems to
> > be broken, at least partially: whenever I start the laptop the screen is
> > off, and here comes the weird part, if I select Gentoo from the grub
> boot (I
> > know where the options are, so I can select it even with the screen off)
> the
> > screen keeps off, but if I select Windows, the screen gets on, but only
> when
> > Windows reach the login screen, not before.
>
> Does your Gentoo system boot into X, or to a console?
>
> Have you tried plugging in an external monitor to see what is displayed
> there?
>

This is solved now... I restarted the computer several times until the
screen displayed the bootup screen. I then entered the BIOS, changed all the
configuration related to the screen (dual screen detection, automatic
brightness,...), and then restarted. After restarting a few times and
checking that the screen always functioned properly I entered the BIOS again
and reverted back all changes. Now the screen is working properly. I don't
know what the hell happened.

Thanks everybody for your help.

Best regards
Jose

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