Totally insane video card problem!

BTR · n00b Joined: 16 Jul 2004 Posts: 52

The video card in question is (according to this access micro work order) a chaintech geforce fx5200 8X agp 128MB ddr w/tv-out & dvi. I'm using the latest (masked) nvidia drivers, vanilla kernel 2.6.6 (though this also happens with gentoo-sources 2.6.7).

Two problems: one, I can't load nvidia-glx. Xorg reports errors loading it, anyway, and glxinfo segfaults. This is, as far as I'm concerned, minor except insofar as it affects the second one.

Two: periodically--like, in a range from 15 minutes to two hours or more--when I'm using X, either X will crash, X apps will randomly crash, or the computer will freeze up completely, and the keyboard stops responding (e.g. pressing num lock doesn't change the indicator LEDs). So, since I don't have another computer to ssh into the frozen one, I have to do a hard reboot. This is, you know, frustrating.

I think it's to do with the video card because I can leave my computer on all night if I'm just on a different vc from 7. (Though that's led to kernel panics too...)

Enabling or disabling APM, ACPI and APIC don't seem to affect this, as I've tried all variations.

So before I ask access micro to send me another video card on the supposition that this one is just broken, I ask: has anyone else had problems remotely like this? My system's really unstable and it's driving me up the wall, but I don't want to bug folks for a new card if it's not going to solve any problems.

(If anyone wants to see specific kernel configs, or anything like that, I'll post them; right now I just want to get this inital post up before I get another damn crash.)

oberyno · Guru Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 467 Location: /bin/zsh

Did you emerge the same version of both nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx? Did you do opengl-update nvidia?

Also, it sounds like you have a hardware problem besides your video card. You could try the memtest86 program to see if it's a memory error. I had a similar memory problem about a month ago. Using the badram kernel patch fixed the problem. You could also try out cpuburn.

SkizotD · n00b Joined: 13 Jan 2004 Posts: 52 Location: Athens, Ohio

I have the same card and was having the same problems. I think the problem was my card was running too hot... I acutally have the side of the case off and an extra fan to keep it cool... now everything is running fine... but everytime i try to put the side of the case back on the problems come back... I need to invest in better cooling equipment...
So I would suggest checking to see if you card is overeheating..
Theres some models of that card with and without fans... mine is without...
but i deffinatly think all the cards should have the fan

BTR · n00b Joined: 16 Jul 2004 Posts: 52

Mine has a fan, but it could still be running hot ... I did notice that it gets less severe towards the evening (that's a large temperature difference outside the case; I don't know about inside.)