On Sun, 8 Aug 1999, Nathan Duehr wrote: > Is there a jumper on the motherboard (besides the BIOS setting) that > physically disables the onboard video when you're not using it?
I doubt it very much. Certainly I was able to disable/enable it in BIOS before and I don't think jumper leads have been touched in the meantime. I think I'll double check this though -- I haven't got anything to lose. Thanks, Mark. > > On Mon, 9 Aug 1999, Mark Phillips wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > Let me tell you about strange happenings on my computer. Any > > suggestions/ideas would be most appreciated, though could you please cc a > > copy to me directly as I am currently reading the list on the web which > > usually has a day or two delay. > > > > I currently use a PCI graphics card on my computer, even though my > > motherboard has a built in graphics card. The reason for this is that X > > did not support the onboard chipset. This has changed however --- I > > believe it is now supported. I decided to bite the bullet and get my > > onboard card working. Let me tell you my strange and twisted story. > > > > 0. I should first mention that I have just done a very minimal upgrade to > > a few potato packages - basically just enough to get the latest apt > > working, as well as the XFree86 version 3.3.4 packages to install. This > > could possibly be relevant --- potato being unstable and all. > > > > 1. Having downloaded the latest XFree86 (version 3.3.4), I tried it on my > > existing setup (with my PCI graphics card) and it seemed to work fine. > > > > 2. I rebooted, got into BIOS setup, and tried to turn on my onboard > > graphics card. I found the BIOS option to do this, but the option was > > shadowed --- so that I was unable to change it from disabled to enabled. > > This was strange because the onboard card was turned on when I first got > > the new motherboard and I had been able to turn it off. I figured I > > needed to change some other option before it would allow me to turn the > > graphics card on. I fiddled with all sorts of things, but nothing would > > let me do it. > > > > 3. I tried physically removing the PCI graphics card, in the hope that > > then it would be forced to use the onboard card, but when I turned it on, > > it just beeped wildly at me. > > > > 4. One action of the BIOS setup menu is to choose "optimal settings", I > > tried this to see what it would do, and it actually turned the onboard > > graphics card setting to "enabled", though it was still in shadow so that > > I couldn't ajust this or any of the associated settings (such as how much > > memory to give the onboard card). I didn't actually keep these settings > > on exiting BIOS setup, for fear of nasty things happening, like neither > > graphics card working. > > > > 5. I gave up on changing graphics cards for the time being, so returned my > > PCI graphics card, and rebooted. I went to start up X and the screen went > > black. I tried changing back to a console and though at first it didn't > > work, eventually it did go back to console mode. I then switched back to > > X. This time the background and cursor came up properly, but the mouse > > wouldn't move. No response. I tried going back to consoles, but this > > time it wouldn't work. I tried kiling X through Ctr-Alt-Backspace but > > this didn't work, something did happen (see aside below), but X didn't die > > and the screen remained unchanged. Eventually I had to turn the > > machine off and on to get back. > > > > Aside: in the past (with this motherboard) when I have tried to exit X via > > Ctr-Alt-Backspace, something weird has happened. The harddrives have > > suddenly shutdown, then a few seconds later they start powering up again. > > It's a bit worrying and I don't know why it happens. I usually avoid this > > problem by getting out via a menu. Anyway, this time when I pressed > > Ctr-Alt-Backspace the disks powered down as has happened previously, but > > the was no exiting X! In fact when I did it a second time, the powering > > down happened again -- and still no change on the screen. > > > > So that's where I am now. X doesn't work anymore and I don't know why. > > Was it something to do with me fiddling with BIOS, or pulling the card out > > and back in again? Or was it something to do with the new XFree86 (3.3.4) > > that only showed up after a reboot? Or is the hardware playing up? Or is > > it something to do with moving to some potato packages? Or what? > > > > And why can't I select the onboard graphics card??? Are the BIOS options > > faulty? Or do I need to turn something else on/off before it works? Or > > is the graphics card hardware onboard dead or something? Or what? > > > > If any ideas spring to mind, I'd appreciate hearing them. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Mark. > > > > _/~~~~~~~~\___/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________ > > ____/~~\_____/~~\__/~~\__________________________Mark_Phillips____________ > > ____/~~\_____/[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > ____/~~\HE___/~~\__/~~\APTAIN_____________________________________________ > > ____/~~\______/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________ > > __________________________________________________________________________ > > "They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!" > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null > > > > > > +-----------------------------------+--------------------------------+ > | Nate Duehr - [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Support Amateur Radio & Linux! | > | Private Pilot, Telephony Engineer | Ham Callsign: N0NTZ | > | UNIX Hack, Perl Hack, Tech-Freak | Grid Square: DM79 | > | | "May the Source be with you." | > +-----------------------------------+--------------------------------+ > | HamRadio and Linux mailing lists available for interested parties: | > | http://www.natetech.com/mailman/listinfo | > +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ > > _/~~~~~~~~\___/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________ ____/~~\_____/~~\__/~~\__________________________Mark_Phillips____________ ____/~~\_____/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ____/~~\HE___/~~\__/~~\APTAIN_____________________________________________ ____/~~\______/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________ "They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!"
