Need new graphics card
 

I recently install CentOS 5.2 on an older pc
Abit VP6 motherboard
2 x 1GHz PIII processors
1.5GB RAM
Nvidia MX440 video

All works fine except when running X
The display locks at ramdom times
Sometimes it locks when I log in
Sometimes it locks after several hours
While it is locked I can ssh to this machine from another server
I have to reboot to clear it
Also when I reboot X starts with random resolutions
From research I see this has been a problem with Nvidia for several years
Can someone suggest a fix or a reliable video card replacment
I am not a gamer, I not not need anything fancy
This is my xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "yes"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nv"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1600x1024" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Welcome to LQ. Have you tried using the proprietary nvidia drivers ? A version that supports that card.

I think this driver:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d..._96.43.07.html

First, if you can ssh into the machine, you don't need to reboot: Be root, do init 3, do init 5, and you should get back X. But of course, this is no fix for the problem itself.

All I can say is that I'm using the same card in one of my machines without any issues whatsoever - it did pay to use NVIDIA's own driver, though (on Ubuntu - I have no idea (yet) what distro you're using).

Also, I think you might be overdoing it with resolution - try 1280x1024 as a maximum and see if it locks again. Edit the file by hand, it's no big deal, you only need to change the "Modes" line.

M.

Not sure where you got the info that nVidia cards lock up all the time.. I've been running nvidia cards in my boxes since 2000 and I've never experienced that type of issue with a working graphics card from nvidia (defective cards on the other hand can cause issues no matter the brand), and I do have a couple boxes with a MX440 in it, as well as a couple boxes with older TNT2 cards..

OP says he's using Centos 5.2 (RHEL 5.2) so that would be system-config-display to reconfigure.

I would agree with TexMex and say give the nvidia legacy drivers a shot.

Or you could download something like inquisitor to test your hardware and see if you have some other issues lurking..
http://www.inquisitor.ru/

Gee, you're right about CentOS, farslayer. I corrected my former post.

M.

May God save you from RPM Hell :P