Re: need motherboard recommendation

[Mark Neidorff <mark@neidorff.com>]

On Sunday 26 December 2010 09:00 am, Russell L. Harris wrote:
> * Stan Hoeppner <stan@hardwarefreak.com> [101226 13:35]:
> > Russell L. Harris put forth on 12/26/2010 5:12 AM:
> > > I am tossing into the dumpster the last two motherboards which I
> > > purchased -- Asus M3A78-T (AMD64) and Asus P5Q-EM (i386) -- because of
> > > video problems.
>
> >> With the M3A78-T, the POST screen displayed a cross-hatch pattern
> >> of horizontal and vertical red and green lines with a variety of
> >> monitors, both CRT and LCD.  The pattern also is visible in
> >> terminal mode outside of X.  Three trips back to Asus did not cure
> >> the problem.

Well OK.  So, this seems to me to be a memory problem.  I'm guessing the video 
ram.  Whatever memory the 80X25 mode is mapping into has become flaky.  When 
you start X, you are using different memory, so no problem.  Why didn't ASUS 
solve the problem?  dunno.  Perhaps, once the MB booted into whatever they 
tested with (X, MS-Win, whatever), the problem isn't apparent.  Their bad.  
Also, the problem does not seem to affect the operation of the MB once it is 
booted.  So, how much worse is this than annoying?  Of course, you know that 
you can look at udev and the logs to see all the boot messages once the PC is 
in X.  Did I miss something?

Now, for something else that just occurred to me....Are you using the same VGA 
cable when you attach the different monitors to the different motherboards?  
Could it be the cable, or are there instances where the cable works properly?

Mark