Re: XFree86 (3.3.4), graphics cards, and BIOS weirdness.
Is there a jumper on the motherboard (besides the BIOS setting) that
physically disables the onboard video when you're not using it?
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____________
> ____/~~\_____/~~\________________________________mark@ist.flinders.edu.au_
> ____/~~\HE___/~~\__/~~\APTAIN_____________________________________________
> ____/~~\______/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________
> __________________________________________________________________________
> "They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!"
>
>
>
>
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>
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