I have seen so many problems with LCD monitors yet I have yet to see one that can address my situation.

My monitor will not display anything at boot which makes it virtually impossible to even fix what could be wrong.

I had to install SuSE 9.2 on my or CRT.

My LCD has never displayed anything at boot, and only shows output once windows gets to the welcome srceen.

My video card is an ATI 9800 Pro capable of both RGB and DVI and supposedly both at the same time. The card was recognized by SuSE during CRT install, though it only allowed me to select 1200X1600. This may be a bug but I'm not sure of a workaround.

To address my first issue, getting at least so output in DVI mode so I can start to fix my problem.

Is it possible to fix the problems using my CRT and test in DVI. I am afraid that I might loose all display capability.


(FTP installs take forever, I do not want to go through that again)

Windows tells my the synchs are 59Hz and 63KHz for vertical and horizaontal respectivly at 1024X1280 resolution.

Thanks in advance for any help.

See if this helps;
http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-l...-Jan/3924.html
also you need to know the monitor specs,you need to give xfree or xorg a range like so;
Section "Monitor"

Identifier "ViewSonic"

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

HorizSync 30-80

# HorizSync 30-64 # multisync
# HorizSync 31.5, 35.2 # multiple fixed sync frequencies
# HorizSync 15-25, 30-50 # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

VertRefresh 50-85
Option "DPMS"

EndSection

Using the values from my previous post I just gave it a whirl, since apparently the new SuSE 9.2 Yast allows you to test your settings, unlike the older 8.2

Since my specific monitor was not listed, I just told the machine, while on my CRT that I was using a Samsung 18T ( I have a Sceptre Naga-9S II .) Everything seems to work, in fact I actually got the dual monitor output to work ( never worked in Windows .) However I still have the problem with seeing any bootup information. This is troublesome since I have a dual boot system. I have to guess when Grub starts and blindly select the OS I need. Plus in Linux the boot screen is much more important than with windows, so I sorta need to know whats going on.

How do you get boot info output on an LCD DVI monitor on either Windows or Linux?

Some other things to note about my particular solution. The Yast graphics/monitor utility still only allows me to select 1200X1600 resolution even though configure desktop->display shows my screen size correctly as 1280X1024. Additionally the YAst utility has my refresh ranges from 60-63KHz and 56-60Hz, while the configure desktop->display shows 0Hz?

This is all very strange but it all works so I'm not about to mess with it too much.

For the blank screen Boot with the option "nofb"

Hmm I think you have misunderstood what I mean by no output during boot. I have NEVER seen boot info on my LCD when connected to the DVI cable. It only appears using the RGB cable. So of course my CRT is fine and my LCD is fine under analog connection. No boot info means no ASUS splash screen, no post, no hardware scanning text, no prompt if using init 3, no nothing.

This is the same behavior in both Windows and Linux boot. I hear this is a common problem and something about the DVI cable itself but for the life of me I can't remember where I found the posting and how I found it.

nofb option will simply give me text. Graphics are not the problem the problem is more signal related.

This post describes my problem pretty well. Perhaps this issue might ring a bell in someones knowledge base.
http://www.techspot.com/vb/archive/index/t-16453.html

The fix in this situation was changing the cable. Can't image how a cable could work when the logon screen appears but not in boot, DOS, post or whatever.

In curiousity, are there different types of DVI cables?

He may have switched from single to dual link DVI-D, so it could still be cable type, actually. Though it's my understanding you only need dual link for really high resolutions. Anyway, my guess is its a vid card auto-detect port prob... maybe the second link/channel on cable is being used for that too.

To add, I decided to search on "DVI cables" I found a site that describes 3 types DVI-D, DVI-A and DVI-I. Apparently D is just for Digital A for analog only and I for both.

Interestingly enough, the site also listed several graphics boards with a DVI-I connector. Virtually all the newer ATI's had one including mine 9800 Pro. Is in possible that, post and boot info is only displayed in analog and digital output is only available after the logon screen is reached.

Need you opinions since I do not want to buy a $30 cable for nothing. Hopfully someone knows this for sure.

I'll have to place this problem on the back-burner for awhile cause I'm stumped. I still have to get my sound hardware to work (asustek nForce.) Based on my experience with video and sound for Linux, it is hard to believe why anyone would want to build a kick a-- cutting edge system when getting the stuff to work in Linux is such a pain. I think Linux could be so much better if vendors would actually port reliable drivers for there wares.

Hehe, yeah, seems all LCD screens come with DVI-D ports and all vid cards with DVI-I... which really left me scratching my head when ordering my first DVI cable. Turned out DVI-D cables plug into DVI-I ports just fine. Anyways, my guess is same as yours: vid card isn't detecting port (analog vs. digital) connection correctly. Maybe it's looking for a signal missing on a single link cable though, but otherwise can't imagine why cable would matter. Sorry I don't know for sure. I can tell you my LCD using a DVI-D cable works during bootup just fine, however. The only difference being I'm using nVidia cards.

Perhaps ATI cards differ in this case though I have yet to see any significant post on this card and the cable. If this were a problem some would had posted it by now.

Well I went to ATI's site to diagnose the problem figuring this was common. After all I see so many posts but no real solution. If anyone cares to see the faq its short and I'll post it, though none of the solutions fix the problem.

http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/...eshooting.html

Well the cable is only $30 so I suppose I'll try it

This thread is incredible and seems to be dedicated to my problem and ATI card holders alike.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthre...0&page=1&pp=30

Beware when you buy late model ATI. Maybe someday this problem will get fixed.