Re: need motherboard recommendation

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Sun, 26 Dec 2010 11:12:17 +0000, Russell L. Harris wrote:

> 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.  I purchased the boards because of the long-life solid
> capacitors.  (Motherboard life typically is limited by deterioration of
> conventional electrolytic capacitors with age and heat.)
> 
> 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.
> 
> With the P5Q-EM, the display goes blank ("out of range" message on the
> monitor) when X starts.

(...)

I don't think you need a new board but digging a bit more about your 
current problems. What would I check?

- BIOS update (check if there is any new BIOS revision for your board)

- Video card (if you are using an external card, just try with another 
one, if you are using an embedded card, just test with an external one)

- PCI-e slot (if your VGA is external, try by swapping the card into 
another free pci-e slot)

- Cables (DVI cables can do weird things, just try with another or even 
try with the VGA input/cable instead of using the digital signal, just 
for testing)

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón