I have been using Mandrak 10.1 community for a while and I have been using nvidia's drivers (6629) since they came out, but recently whenever I do any 3d rendering my machine will just shutdown. And I mean running any 3d rendering, whether it is a opengl screensaver, glxgears or a opengl game. I haven't made any changes to my box recently and it seems odd that what was working just fine up till this last week has suddenly become very unstable. Anyone have any ideas on this?

Check the fans on both the CPU and GPU. Sudden shutdowns while heavy computing is often a result of overheating.

You can also load lm_sensor to monitor your temperatures.

- Peder

Sensors for the fans were the first thing I checked but its running steady at 39C. My machine is on all the time and it doesn't shutdown on its own if I just let it sit and run. It only shuts off if I use the glx or opengl.

I tried reinstalling Mandrake 10.1 community again but that doesn't fix it either. Plus I have a new problem, when I run the Nvidia *.run file it says it installs the module but the nvidia module never loads on its own now. I have to manually do a modprobe nvidia to load it and then init 3 and init 5 to get X server to start. I reboot and I have to do the same thing again. I am going to try Mandrake 10.1 official and see if it makes a difference. I guess I will try Knoppix 3.7 too to see if the glxgears will crash my machine.

Hey..not sure about your first problem, but about your current nvidia problem..with having to modprobe it..

I had this issue, and what you need to do is edit your /etc/modprobe.preload and add "nividia" to it. Also edit your modprobe.conf and add

to it. The drivers should load automatically now. Not sure if you knew this already...but just incase...

As for your first problem...I also had that happen to me on a different distro other than mandrake. I never could figure it out.

-RoaCh

Thanks adding it to preload fixed my problem with it loading the nvidia module at start up. The alias line was already there so I didn't need to change it.

Also to note is that if I use the Knoppix 3.7 cd and run glxgears it runs fine. I have let glxgears run under knoppix for almost an hour and no power down. So it has to be something about mandrake. I did find a note about rivafb causing a problem with the driver, but the rivafb module is built into the kernel. I recompiled my kernel without rivafb but I am still powering down when using the 3d graphics.

I am at a complete loss here about why my machine is shutting off, it isn't hardware because it would have crashed with knoppix or even my regular desktop should be having a problem.

It is something about Mandrake 10.1 (Community or Official) and the nvidia driver. I guess I just have to wait until nvidia releases a new driver and hope it fixed the problem.

I loaded up Fedora and it did the same thing so I think its the driver or hardware. I hope its the driver.