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Old 04-11-2019, 03:23 PM   #16
d745fba1cb70ab9dc02a80ee
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I just had my screen go black with just a cursor for about a minute, and all my windows flash a bunch of times for a few more minutes after that. The following appeared in my dmesg:
Code:
[36413.809718] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:01:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ChID 0008, Class 00005039, Offset 00000100, Data 00000000
[36441.960855] NVRM: Xid (PCI:0000:01:00): 13, Graphics Exception: ChID 0002, Class 00005039, Offset 00000328, Data 00000000
Does this mean that my GPU crashed?

EDIT: The flashing stopped because I turned off my compositor. If I turn it back on, the flashing continues.

Last edited by d745fba1cb70ab9dc02a80ee; 04-11-2019 at 03:29 PM.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 03:38 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by d745fba1cb70ab9dc02a80ee View Post
This laptop is a Dell Precision M4500 that I got in either 2014 or 2015. It was refurbished, and I think (I may have to check) it has a new hard drive, new RAM, and a new battery.
None of it is "new" any more. It was at least 4 years old when you acquired it, and that was around 5 years ago.

Quote:
I abandoned Windows 7 in 2016 because it was too slow and was having too much trouble with internet drivers. It would not connect to a wired network and would not recognize my Wi-Fi card at all (on Windows). Graphics drivers on Linux never worked quite right, but the machine is still overall better on Linux than it was on Windows. I've been having the exact same issues for years and just decided to try to fix them now.
What you've described is a proverbial lemon. The "refurbishing" process was probably little more than cleaning the outside, installing Windows on a wiped HD, and making sure Windows boots, on a laptop already 5 or more years old.

Quote:
If it was a hardware issue, I would think it would get worse over time.
Maybe. Maybe not. It's never been "good" the whole time you've had it, has it? Are its RAM sticks a matched pair?

Quote:
I don't have a spare hard drive and don't really want to download over 4 gigabytes...
The different HD was suggested in order to avoid losing your current installation investment, not necessary if losing current data or restoring it from backup is a non-issue for you.

Quote:
, but which distros do you recommend trying?
Any that offer a NET installation image, so that you only need download what will actually be installed, and have a complete complement of software available to choose to install, rather than being limited to whatever is on the installation media. More than that, you'll have the latest version of everything available, no need to update when the installation process is complete.

More important probably than choice of distro is choice of desktop. A lighter weight DE may be less prone to call upon resources that are problematic on your specific hardware. Manjaro, openSUSE, Mageia and CentOS are some distro candidates. Make use of distrowatch.com to choose. I settled on openSUSE as my primary Linux around 16 years ago, but have current and old installations of several popular distros spread across more than 25 multiboot PCs.

Quote:
I think I can memtest it either overnight tonight or over the weekend. Any reason why I should use MemTest86 and not MemTest86+?
For a laptop as old as yours, it probably won't matter. + is much older, v5.x vs 7.x, less capable on newer hardware, particularly for use with UEFI.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 03:57 PM   #18
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So my machine is probably junk anyways? I guess I may be upgrading sooner than I anticipated. I don't recall the system ever working perfectly, but I'm not going to give up hope yet. The RAM sticks are a matched pair. I can restore from backup if I need to. LXDE doesn't work properly on the proprietary drivers (I tested before), so I guess I'll try XFCE if I need a lightweight desktop. I researched my machine to see if it normally works on Linux, and I found a bunch of stories like https://twicetwo.com/blog/linux/hard...precision.html, suggesting that this is not a very good Linux machine and I am actually having a better experience than many other people with it. I've been hearing good things about Manjaro, which isn't Debian based, so I guess I'll try that first.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 04:00 PM   #19
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Slight problem: MemTest86 from https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm appears to only support UEFI boot in versions newer than 4.x. My machine does not have proper UEFI support. Should I use MemTest86 4.x or MemTest86+
 
Old 04-11-2019, 04:21 PM   #20
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Use whatever you can get to work. I'd be trying the F12 key first to try to make it boot the 7.x version in UEFI mode.

Do have the newest BIOS installed?

Are you sure the Quadro is soldered in place? IME such things fit in proprietary sockets. There is a possibility it could be removed. Check the exact CPU model with inxi -C against intel.com to see if it provides a GPU on die. You could get lucky and only need to retire the Quadro.

Last edited by mrmazda; 04-11-2019 at 04:40 PM.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 04:49 PM   #21
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I have the newest BIOS installed. I am sure that the Quadro is soldered. Every spec sheet I can find says it is soldered, every motherboard is labeled as coming with an FX880M or FX1800M, and every image I can find appears to have it soldered. If you take a look at https://s3.amazonaws.com/MOBO/MOBO-00223-1.JPG, the GPU is the thing below and to the left of the CPU socket, and it is surrounded by a gig of VRAM that is also soldered. I don't know what the thing on the right that looks like another processor or GPU is, but it also looks soldered. Intel doesn't even mention on-die graphics on the CPU's page (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...-1-73-ghz.html). https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...rocessors.html has no mention of 1st gen i7 processors with integrated graphics. http://cpuboss.com/cpu/Intel-Core-i7-740QM mentions that it does not have integrated graphics.

I cannot retire the quadro unless I abuse the mPCIe lanes meant for something like my Wi-Fi card to drive an external GPU. I think that the best option would be to keep using the Quadro as is until I can buy a new laptop.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 05:08 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by d745fba1cb70ab9dc02a80ee View Post
I don't know what the thing on the right that looks like another processor or GPU is, but it also looks soldered.
It has to be the QM57.

Quote:
Intel doesn't even mention on-die graphics on the CPU's page (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us...-1-73-ghz.html).
That affirms your laptop is inseparable from its Quadro.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 05:13 PM   #23
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That looks like it has a lot of I/O. Is it a northbridge or something? My laptop probably could be separated from the quadro with the power of my flathead screwdriver, but I feel like that would break it even more. Well, time to close my stuff and try some distros.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 05:27 PM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by d745fba1cb70ab9dc02a80ee View Post
That looks like it has a lot of I/O. Is it a northbridge or something?
The QM57 is a PCH, obsoleting separate south and north bridges.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 06:23 PM   #25
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So far, Manjaro with whatever it uses as its default free Nvidia driver seems stable, but I'll need to install and test it more.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 06:34 PM   #26
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It also seems a lot faster and more energy efficient than Kubuntu was. I may actually switch.
 
Old 04-11-2019, 11:39 PM   #27
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I got bored and decided to play some video games. I ended up NOT crashing anything! Why would Manjaro work but not Debian/(K)Ubuntu?
 
Old 04-11-2019, 11:59 PM   #28
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Different distro, different kernel, different compiler, different defaults, different background services, etc. Using same DE in both? What is output from:
Code:
inxi -Gxxb
run from a terminal in an X session?
 
Old 04-12-2019, 12:59 AM   #29
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Quote:
Originally Posted by d745fba1cb70ab9dc02a80ee View Post
So my machine is probably junk anyways?
nobody said that.
you just need to be aware of its limitations.
according to this it was pretty powerful in 2011, but be aware, these models come in many different submodels, maybe you have a weaker CPU, less RAM etc.

i have often seen that older nvidia cards are not properly recognized by automated driver installation; for a 2011 model you'd probably need the oldest proprietary driver readily available.
i have also seen that even current nouveau versions are more buggy with older cards!

btw, you're the first 16-year old i ever saw making McGyver hints and being genrally too well-versed in geek lingo. color me sceptical.

Last edited by ondoho; 04-12-2019 at 01:02 AM.
 
Old 04-12-2019, 10:30 AM   #30
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I'll run inxi -Gxxb soon, but I need to burn a new flash drive because I killed my current one.

I have a slightly weaker CPU than that model being reviewed, but I have the full 8GB of RAM and the same graphics card. I also don't have some of the additional features like Bluetooth, mobile data, the fingerprint reader, the Blu-Ray drive, or an SSD, but that shouldn't affect my graphics performance.

Lol, they are saying that some people might find scaling on a 1920 by 1080 screen to be annoying.

They say this can get up to 5.5 hours of battery life. Mine doesn't get that.

Nvidia's site claims my card is compatible with the nvidia-340 driver. Should I use an even older version than that?

I haven't actually watched Macgyver. I only heard about him by watching Mythbusters.
 
  


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