Computer unstable with Geforce 420 Go (NV 17)

grenier · 01-26-2006, 01:09 AM

Hi folks, I hope home somebody will be able to help me here.

To begin with, here are my computer's spec:

HP pavillion zv5000 series (exact model is zv5330ea) with:

- Opteron 3000+ (that's what lspci says anyway. I only use a 32 bit kernel though (Mandriva flavor of the 2.6.12 kernel), for fear of issues with the 64 bit kernel with some later driver/software compilation.

- 768 Mo RAM

- WXGA screen (15,1''). Res is 12000x800

- NVidia NV17 - Geforce 420 Go with supposedly 64 Mo of RAM

Theses are only the highlights I think relevant to my problem. Below is the lspci output.

I run it under Mandriva 2006, but I've recompiled the NVidia driver from their site (build 7676) and made what I think are appropriate changes to the xorg.conf file.

As long as I run it in desktop mode (browsing, openofficing, whatever...) it works fine. It's when I begin to use the 3D capabilities that I run into problems. If I've had running for a while and decide to start up a game (mainly Neverwinter Nights or DoomIII, but it may happen with games with lower requirements), the computer reboots.
If I make a clean reboot, I can start-up the games fine, but I've had instances of it rebooting again after about a hour of play (with doom, the most resources intensive, of course).

So it appears linked to the load on the machine, and I'm guessing the reboot occurs mainly because it's a laptop and that I'd have somekind of freeze up on a desktop box.

I've been fiddling with the xorg.conf for a while now, but I can't seem to find a solution.

If anybody can offer any help...

Below are my xorg.conf file and lspci output :

=========================

xorg.conf:

# File generated by XFdrake.

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Mandrake 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
FontPath "unix/:-1"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
#DontZap # disable <Crtl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
#DontZoom # disable <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "synaptics"
Load "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/nvidia/libglx.so"

# Load "bitmap"
# Load "ddc"
# Load "dri"
Load "glx"
# Load "int10"
# Load "record"
# Load "type1"
# Load "vbe"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "fr"
Option "XkbOptions" "compose:rwin"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "SynapticsMouse1"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.8"
Option "MaxSpeed" "1.00"
Option "BottomEdge" "650"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "0"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
Option "LeftEdge" "120"
Option "FingerLow" "14"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "FingerHigh" "15"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "CircularScrolling" "1"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.015"
Option "RightEdge" "830"
Option "TopEdge" "120"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor1"
VendorName "HP"
ModelName "Flat Panel 1280x800"
HorizSync 31.5-48.5
VertRefresh 40-70

# TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
# 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576" 50.00 768 832 846 1000 576 590 595 630

# 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576" 63.07 768 800 960 1024 576 578 590 616

# modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
ModeLine "1280x800_120" 181.21 1280 1376 1520 1760 800 801 804 858 -HSync +Vsync

# modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
ModeLine "1280x800_100" 147.89 1280 1376 1512 1744 800 801 804 848 -HSync +Vsync

# modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
ModeLine "1280x800_85" 123.38 1280 1368 1504 1728 800 801 804 840 -HSync +Vsync

# modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
ModeLine "1280x800_75" 107.21 1280 1360 1496 1712 800 801 804 835 -HSync +Vsync

# modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
ModeLine "1280x800_60" 83.46 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 828 -HSync +Vsync

# modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
ModeLine "1280x800_50" 68.56 1280 1336 1472 1664 800 801 804 824 -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"

Option "NoLogo" "True" #Turns off the nvidia splash screen.
#Twin View
# Option "TwinView"
# Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
# Option "MetaModes" Option "MetaModes" "1024x768,1024x768;"
# Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-50"
# Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NV17 [GeForce4 440 Go 64M]"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
# Screen 0

#Ancienne config
# Identifier "device1"
# VendorName "nVidia Corp."
# BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce4 (generic)"
# Driver "nvidia"
# BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
## Option "DPMS"
# Option "IgnoreEDID" "1"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen1"
Device "device1"
Monitor "monitor1"
DefaultColorDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Virtual 1280 800
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 15
Virtual 1280 800
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Virtual 1280 800
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Virtual 1280 800
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "layout1"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "SynapticsMouse1" "AlwaysCore"
Screen "screen1"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

===========================

lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 Host Bridge (rev a4)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 LPC Bridge (rev a6)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce3 SMBus (rev a4)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 USB 1.1 (rev a5)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 USB 1.1 (rev a5)
00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 USB 2.0 (rev a2)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 Audio (rev a2)
00:06.1 Modem: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 00d9 (rev a2)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation nForce3 IDE (rev a5)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 AGP Bridge (rev a4)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 420 Go 32M] (rev a3)
02:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB21 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
02:02.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4303 802.11b Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)
02:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1620 PC Card Controller (rev 01)
02:04.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1620 PC Card Controller (rev 01)
02:04.2 System peripheral: Texas Instruments PCI1620 Firmware Loading Function (rev 01)

beagle2 · 01-30-2006, 03:47 PM

Check bios for agp fast write mode and try your games with fast write disabled. Try here as well Appendix F. Configuring AGP ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Li...676/README.txt

grenier · 02-01-2006, 02:48 AM

Well, thanks for the answer, unfortunately, checking /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status has given me:

Status: Enabled
Driver: AGPGART
AGP Rate: 4x
Fast Writes: Disabled
SBA: Disabled

So fast writes is disabled already. I'll keep reading that appendix, I guess(I hadan't noticed it before)

beagle2 · 02-01-2006, 03:42 AM

According to nvidia forum there is a bug with some kernel versions including 2.6.12 and driver 7676 - http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=58498. Thats me about done I'm afraid, good luck

grenier · 02-02-2006, 12:07 AM

You know what? It never even occured to me to look for an answer on the nvidia forums.

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions, I'll give it a try.

grenier · 02-03-2006, 05:51 AM

Ok, so it seems this one is somewhat more complicated than I thought.

I did update the nvidia driver to version 8178. No luck.

I did make a couple of discoveries about my pc's behavior. First of all, the hard reboot doesn't happen only when I launch some heavy load app. glxgear is quite sufficient, thank you very much.

Basically, if I had my laptop run for a while, launching glxgear crashes the computer. But I also had the same result if I attempted to start it right after booting and launching the bittorrent client (laucnhmanycurse, but with a big archive that it had to parse again).

Of course, nothing in the logs...

beagle2 · 02-03-2006, 09:47 AM

Not much help with laptops but could be a load problem - too much for cpu to handle. Maybe try a live cd like knoppix and see if you can get stability that way. Power management another possibility - sorry not much help.