Screen randomly goes blank! Arrgh!

Scott Johnston · 10-30-2014, 01:28 PM

I've dropped LM17 on a 2007 Dell Vostro, 120GB SSD, with all else OEM. I had no issues for the first few weeks and then my video goes blank for no reason. Audio continues to play which means the CPU is processing.

I've done all the obvious, reinstalls, rip out and reinstalls. I have the Intel GM965 chipset I researched alternative drivers and even contacted Intel. No resolution.

The ONLY thing I can think I did before the problem was, I installed Rocket Software's Universe MV DB. Just a DB and it has no special interaction with the hardware.

Looking for any ideas on this.

ondoho · 10-30-2014, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Johnston

with all else OEM.

???

Quote:

I have the Intel GM965 chipset

are you using the gma500 driver for that?
have a look at

Code:

lspci -k | grep -iA5 vga

if so, i think it's one of the worst-developed reverse-engineered(?) floss drivers and there's nothing else available for a current distro.

but by all means, search some more. i'd hate to be right on this.

ps: have you ruled out a hardware issue?

mjolnir · 10-30-2014, 05:58 PM

I'm having what seems to be the same issue with Ubuntu 14.04 on a Lenovo R61i.

Code:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) (rev 0c)
	Subsystem: Lenovo ThinkPad T61/R61
	Kernel driver in use: i915

Scott Johnston · 10-31-2014, 05:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

???

are you using the gma500 driver for that?
have a look at

Code:

lspci -k | grep -iA5 vga

if so, i think it's one of the worst-developed reverse-engineered(?) floss drivers and there's nothing else available for a current distro.

but by all means, search some more. i'd hate to be right on this.

ps: have you ruled out a hardware issue?

I'll have a look at that today. I'm sure I have the latest update. Which may be the problem. I may need to go retro. I am using the intel driver I pulled down with apt-get. The screen itself was replaced back in July. It burned out hot! Smelled wonderful!

Scott Johnston · 10-31-2014, 08:44 AM

Nope, it's the 965 as I stated.

scottjo@scottjo-LM17:~ > lspci -k | grep -iA5 vga
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) (rev 0c)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0228
Kernel driver in use: i915
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (secondary) (rev 0c)
Subsystem: Dell Device 0228
scottjo@scottjo-LM17:~ >

I may try an older driver as I said. I'm not sure what problems I would have with a Good Morning America 500 driver. I think it would be too "Disney" for me.

ondoho · 10-31-2014, 02:48 PM

sorry, my bad, i really got this wrong.

what distro are you running?

have a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log, there might be something interesting (grep for 'EE') in there.

you know how to use grep?

Scott Johnston · 10-31-2014, 02:52 PM

Yes, I know how to do anything. It's just unix on a PC. But the system failed again today. I will try this tommorrow but I am thinking a complete rebuild is in order. VERY disappointed so far.

I wrote LM17, Linuxc Mint ver 17

metaschima · 10-31-2014, 03:08 PM

Not the best video chipset. You could try a newer kernel and see if any bugs have been worked out. I would personally stay away from this chipset.

Scott Johnston · 10-31-2014, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metaschima

Not the best video chipset. You could try a newer kernel and see if any bugs have been worked out. I would personally stay away from this chipset.

I really don't have a choice in the chips. It's a laptop. I am hoping a generic driver will solve the problem.