monitor turns off...Mandrake 9.1. Geforce4Ti4200 FPD1810
 

:newbie:
Hello guys...
I had my first attempt to install Linux (Mandrake 9.1) but it didn't worked with my monitor or video card...? My monitor turns off... when opening kde I guess, I hear like awelcome music sound but anything else, I tried to turn on again the monitor but it turns off again... what could be the problem?

I'm very new trying this so I didn't know what to do... I had to re-format my hard drive and then installed windows xp pro again because I couldn't get back to windows and I lost all my files. I had installed Partition magic 8 and did 3 partitions (1 swap, 1 NTFS, and 1 EXt2)... can't remember in what order, and everything got ugly... I wasn't able to install bootmagic because I didn't have any FAT32 partitions (like now)... I only have one big 80GB NTFS right now.

I have a 80GB Hard drive, 2.5 GHz P4 processor, 512 MB DDR, Nvidia Geforce4 Ti 4200 (128MB), Gateway FPD1810 monitor, Soundblaster Audigy...

I tried the Kannopix 3.3 live-cd and everything worked except sound... so looks like I get sound with Mandrake but no video and with kanoppix-cd video but no sound.

What's a good distro for a newbie? I just would like to try it and learn... :study:
I was thinking about buying a "retail version" but then I thought... I don't want to pay $50 or $150 for something I can't use or be able to get it to work... you know. I have broadband connection and dowloaded the 3cd set of Mandrake 9.1 and knoppix 3.3(2003-11-14). also got the 3cd's of Redhat 9 but my cd-image didn't pass the "cd test" it has when trying to install.

So... would you please help me with this?
1. Partitions (I'm trying to have both -windows xp and linux and maybe a partition for sharing data files...?)
2. Video for Mandrake 9.1 or
3. A compatible distro...?


Any help or comments would be great....
Thank you

I had the same problem about a year back with the monitor turning off in Mandrake. It was the capacity of the video card exceeding the capacity of the monitor. The max resolution for the monitor was 1152x864, and the max on the card is 1280x1024 So when I set both for the max of the card, at that time I didn't really know the max of the monitor, the monitor turned off.

So you may want to lower the resolution to the monitor's max resolution. Then it should work just fine. Just try a lower resolution in Mandrake. The only way that I could do that was to do another install over the first one and when it came to setting the resolution, I lowered it by one setting, and haven't had a problem since.

I have a Pentium IV 2.4GHz, 512 SDRAM, 2 40GB HDs, CDRW 36x12x48, DVD, ATI RADEON 7000, dual-boot system with Windows 98SE on the other drive. The twain shall never meet. LOL

Thanks QuickSHADOWMAN,

I'll try that... I hope this time works!!!

I just did some partitions with "partition magic 8"... this time I was able to boot again to windows xp... now I'll try again to install mandrake 9.1 because I can't find where to download the 9.2

ciao!

Same problem... I can't figure out the settings for the graphic card, monitor and resolution; I'm doing the wizard right now so I stoped there.
Is there any way to fix this? I do the "test" part and can't see anything...

My monitor:
Gateway FPD1810 (18")

Video Card:
Nvidia Geforce4 Ti 4200 (128mb)


....please???!!!

if there's nothing I can do, the how to uninstall without damaging my windows xp (ntfs) partition?


Thanks

nada...?
any comments...?
:-( I'm starting to hate linux... I guess this is not for the average user and better stay free of problems with windows...

any other forums likes this for newbies?

thanks

Don't give up like that. I have to admit that 9.1 has it share of problems, that I went back to 8.2 till 9.2 came out. You can get 9.2 on CD from
http://www.linuxcentral.com


Just a few bucks plus s/h. Worth the investment for the three CD set. As for another fourm that can help you, you can check out this one. I hope it helps you.

Promote-Opensource.org

Zkorpio!

I have the answer. I struggled with this same problem for the past couple of weeks, off and on. I have the same exact computer as you do. I ran across the Monitor manual this morning and found the problem:

You have to use the analog cable into the monitor instead of the digital cable.

I'm in Linux right now answering this because of that simple switch. After that, you can get max resolution. I'm running at 1028xsomething-or-other right now, but I'm going to try bumping it up a level or two next.

Let me know if this works for you, too.

-Augie, very happy this morning

Thanks for the tip "auglebd"... but now I just installed SUSE 9 and it's working just fine using the digital cable... I also tried Mandrake 9.2 and "almost" worked after installing the source kernel and the nvidia driver... I just couldn't fix the video dispaly settings, I had a huge display, it looked like I was viewing my monitor with a microscope... and I couldn't find a driver for this monitor; with SUSE is listed as VESA 1280x1024@75HZ(31-70HZ/50-75HZ) color depth 16bit but it's working fine.