Screen lock up = Bad graphics card?

busbarn · 05-14-2007, 08:06 PM

I've been running Arch linux for a couple of years now without any hiccups. Recently I've had issues with my system locking up.
Issue #1
While enjoying some games at addictinggames.com my display would lock up using some games. The display was replaced by stripes or patterns. The mouse pointer turned into a large square. The sound was continuing but the kernel was frozen. When this happens, I can hear an audible click from inside the computer.

Issue #2
Streaming video from the internet or watching movies from my hard drive also causes a freeze. I have movies on a resierfs partition which is not good, but I get a freeze whether I'm watching from network, hard drvie, or dvd rom.

Issue #3
Whenever I try and do something processor intensive, the display freezes. I'm trying to rip a DVD in DVD:rip and the display again freezes.

I've checked error, kernel, message, syslog, and Xorg logs and can only find this in the error log:

Code:

NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 6, PE0000 1ffc 00ffeded 0000f654 1068ffff 00ed1564
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 6, PE0000 0200 0101ffff 00000000 0004ffff 00000420
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 0101ffff
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 6, PE0000 0200 0101ffff 00000000 00000000 00000000
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 0101ffff
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 6, PE0000 0200 0101ffff 00000000 00000000 00000000
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 0101ffff
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 01017c00
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 01010000
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 01010201
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 01010201
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 01010201
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 01010000
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 01010000
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 01010000
May 12 10:01:01 duckbutter NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 3, C 00000000 SC 00000000 M 00000200 Data 01010201

My guess is that my graphics card is going bad. Output from lspci is:

Code:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV36.1 [GeForce FX 5700 Ultra] (rev a1)

Is there anything else I can do to check if this is a software/OS issue? Thanks in advance for any insights!

Quis · 05-15-2007, 12:39 AM

sounds like a broken fan (either on the GPU or the CPU)

busbarn · 05-15-2007, 05:53 AM

So would this mean there is a heat problem?

I'll try replacing the gpu fan and see what happens.

dracolich · 05-15-2007, 08:41 AM

What kind of network/wireless adapter do you use? I've had the same problems, especially issue #1, when using some versions of ndiswrapper. Even if I wasn't using the network connection, just having the module loaded would cause random kernel crashes.

J.W. · 05-16-2007, 01:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by busbarn

So would this mean there is a heat problem?

Possibly, I was going to suggest the same thing. What are your system temps? Check out gkrellm which offers excellent monitoring functions, including GPU (assuming your mobo supports it)