I've been playing around with my computer a lot over the last few days and in the process deleted my ever faithfull SuSE 8.1 to try mandrake 9.0

Everything worked smooth until I got to the display set up. I have a Geforce 4 mx440 and a 1024x768 TFT monitor. I would set it up and try and test the configuration. First my monitor would say "incompatible VGA mode" then, after the 12 or so second "safety time out" rather than going back to the previous configuration my monitor would just say "No Signal". Restarting my computer being the only fix. After 3 or so trys, having to restart my computer every time I figured out that the 800x600 resolution would work, but I couldn't test it. When I did the above "No Signal" would pop up after I accepted the test results.

I finally gave up on Mandrake (for a few reasons). I went to re-install my trusted SuSE. Off of the boot CD I no longer get the option to install in 1024x768 (normally at F5) 800x600 is the highest. When I went to setup video in SuSE the same thing happened as in Mandrake. After accepting the test my monitor just flashed no signal. I have installed SuSE at least 4 times under my current configuration and never had this problem. I ended up having to setup my monitor without testing it. I have SuSE up and running and haven't noticed any serious problems (I'm still setting it up, though)

What is causing this strange behavior? Could my video card be going? Did I fry something?

I think that I see the problem already...


It probably was getting a horizontal/vertical frequency that it couldn't handle.

As for damaging it, you shouldn't have, supposedly the newer monitors are protected against these things.

Not that I would push my luck...


The obvious thing of course is to check your cable to your monitor for starters.

As an aside, I had my monitor do the same thing last night, it turned out to be a loose cable.


John

Well, I used this problem as an excuse to upgrade to a GeForce 4 Ti4200 and I'm still having some really strange and aggrevating problems. I can get X running fine using the dummy geforce driver, but regardless of wether I'm in SuSE or Mandrake, and regardless of wether I'm using the rpms or the source files, I always get told that it's unable to load the kernel model. This for me is somewhat of a first.

In windows (for testing purposes only :-) everything seems to function fine, however while trying to play unreal 2003 I can play for about a minute before my monitor flashes no signal and my sound starts to loop like a scratched cd.

All of this started after installing a new soundcard that I got for christmas (which has since also been exchanged) Is it possible that I, somehow, damaged my motherboard while installing this new soundcard ????

Any help, great or small, would definetly save me from tearing out some hair...


Thanks
Steve

While I thank the Nvidia guys for their hard work on their linux drivers, I don't always think too much of the finished product.

There always seems to be some problem with these drivers...


Hey, I do all sorts of (game) product testing in Windows


Yank the sound card out before doing anything else (well, maybe noting the settings for your sound card & video card before yanking).

The fact that you're having this problem over on the Windows side of the box (hardware testing is one of the best reasons for leaving Windows on your box BTW), leads me to believe that this is a hardware problem and not a linux problem.

So yank the sound card and see if that fixes things. Also, what interrupts are your sound & video cards using? The same one? If they are, you could try changing the sound card interrupt prior to pulling the card (it's not uncommon for several devices to use the same interrupt).

As for damaging your mobo, were hammers involved in the installation?


We'll get there.


John

hammers weren't involved in the installation, but they may come into the picture if I can't figure out where the problem is ;-)

The only reason that I question my motherboard as opposed to my graphics card directly is that I have problems with two consecutive graphics cards after installing this sound card. They don't share IRQs (sound 11 - graphics 05) I'm going to attempt ripping out the sound card and see what that does. Otherwise I'm going to have to start selectively replacing stuff. Unfortunately here in Germany customers aren't always right, and they're likely to give you the boot if you start returning stuff too much.

As for getting there, I have no doubt.

Thanks again,
Steve

I am adding onto a submission from another user in order to help fix the module problem that occurs (he didn't heh), I will state what's his.

okay onto the good stuff:
if you're having problems installing the geforce 4 drivers (mine is the ti 4400) and you're getting module errors (if you're seeing errors with modversions.h etc etc) try the following

(right now I'm running debian so if you're going to try to follow this get the tar.gz not the rpm)

compile a new kernel
grab kernel 2.4.20 (lastest one when I wrote this)
do your make etc etc etc etc etc (this isn't a kernel installation helper, you can find plenty elsewhere)
If you want to know what version you're currently running type:
cat /proc/version

by the way, I also recommend not removing things that were already set in the kernel configuration (when you type make menuconfig or make xconfig), add what you need and remove ONLY what your ABSOLUTELY sure you don't need (menu xconfig is much more "pretty" so if your iffy use that one)... oh and don't rush!! I always find myself going F#&@ when I rush and then have to go back and do it again for one reason or another.

okay now your new kernel is installed and hopefully everything is still running the way you intended
guess what ? ----> you just fixed your errors, now all you have to do is install your nvidia drivers (nvidia_XXXXX-1.0-4191.tar.gz)
there's 2 files (glx and kernel)

_____________________
Okay the rest was written by iceman47 and works perfectly once you complete what I just finished writing (definite thanx to iceman47 )

Get the tar's from www.nvidia.com:
http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_...1.0-4191.tar.gz
http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_...1.0-4191.tar.gz
untar both
-tar -zxvf NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4191.tar.gz
-tar -zxvf NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4191.tar.gz
cd into NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4191
su and make install
cd into NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4191
make install
add nvidia to /etc/modules
echo nvidia >> /etc/modules
Edit your XF86Config (/etc/X11/XF86Config) file and change:
- Driver "nv" or Driver "vesa" into Driver "nvidia"
Add in the 'Module' section:
-Load "glx"
and remove (if those exist):
Load "dri"
Load "GLcore"

______________________

now that you've completed iceman47's contribution there's a couple of things I want to mention.
Make sure you know what XF86Config file is being used
In my case it's XF86Config-4
go to /etc/X11 and check out what's there, if you keep editing XF86Config and nothing appears to change..... edit the other one DUH!
(ps - keep backups of the files or use # rather than deleting lines)
also, stay conservative at first, I haven't gotten past 1600x1200, I don't know if it supports any higher

well that's pretty much it, hopefully I didn't leave anything out that you'll need to know.
I'm a newb myself to linux and recently got past this annoying GF4 problem.
what do you think of my for the newb by the newb tutorial? heh

good luck