Strange display problem after Xorg 7.1 update

pops45042

So last night I decided it was about time to do an emerge --sync and emerge world. Last time I did it was probably a week ago. Neato, Xorg 7.1.1. I let world do its thing.

Today I woke up and decided to restart X to make sure I was using 7.1.1. X wouldn't start, so I unloaded and reloaded the nvidia driver and kdm now starts up ok.

About every 1-4 hours (random as far as I can tell) the mouse stops working and then the monitor goes dark, like its going on a blank screensaver (yet this is while I'm actively using the computer). But the desktop shows back up and the mouse starts working after about 1-2 sec. Amarok keeps the music going and conky (system monitor) doesn't show any abnormal cpu usage or otherwise.

Anyone else seen this? Any ideas?

Thanks,
Paul
_________________
"That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable"

Laugh at my old system!
AMD Opteron 165@ 2750Mhz, 2gig 400mhz Cas2 Crucial Ballistix, Abit NF8 Ultra MB, WD 80gig (system), WD 120gig (storage), Geforce 8800GTS 320MB, Mushkin 550W PS

TempTux · n00b Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 23

pops45042 · Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:00 pm Post subject:

The refresh rate isn't the problem. I've been using this monitor, and same video card for about 1-2 years on gentoo with they only thing changed being the Xorg server.

I've also got it on a KVM switch and the monitor is fine on there with the same res and refresh rate. The only thing thats changed is that I upgraded Xorg from 7.0 to 7.1

On a side note, the problem with everything going black doesn't happen very often now. Maybe once a day. What I've noticed the most is the monitor going on powersave every 5min or so when idle and then after about 15min or so, some generic "X" screensaver is coming on. How in the hell did this happen? KDE (3.5.5) doesn't show that the screensaver should be coming on or the monitor going on a powersave mode. wtf.
_________________
"That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable"

Laugh at my old system!
AMD Opteron 165@ 2750Mhz, 2gig 400mhz Cas2 Crucial Ballistix, Abit NF8 Ultra MB, WD 80gig (system), WD 120gig (storage), Geforce 8800GTS 320MB, Mushkin 550W PS

pops45042 · Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:37 pm Post subject:

Ok. I may have figured out a good deal of the puzzle. I think the videocard may be overheating, but I'm not 100%, its just a theory. The back of the GPU feels quite hot when the system is idle. I checked the fan/heatsink and its dust free and working just fine. Weird how this problem came out of nowhere.

I'm going to take my KVM out of the loop tonight and make sure it isn't that. Then I'll put a new cooler on the videocard if it still does it. I have a good copper one I bought for it a while back but never put it on.

I'm thinking that the driver is crashing and somehow being restarted either by the kernel or Xorg...?

Paul
_________________
"That which does not kill me only postpones the inevitable"

Laugh at my old system!
AMD Opteron 165@ 2750Mhz, 2gig 400mhz Cas2 Crucial Ballistix, Abit NF8 Ultra MB, WD 80gig (system), WD 120gig (storage), Geforce 8800GTS 320MB, Mushkin 550W PS