Help! NVidia drivers lock up my PC

[zoran]

I'm having problems installing NVidia drivers in Mandrake 9.0. NVchooser told me to get:

NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4191.mdk90up.i586.rpm and NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4191.i386.rpm

which I did. Rpm complained about tainting the kernel (but did load the module), and warned about old GL libs that he renamed - all that should be just fine. In XFConfg-4 I changed module "nv" to "nvidia" and removed option "DPMS" just in case. There was no "dri" nor "GLcore" in it.

When I start X, the screen goes black for a moment, as if it's switching to graphics mode, and then it goes back to text mode leaving ASCII mess (nothing comprehensible) on the screen. At that point all I can do is hard reset the PC. XFree86.0.log contains no errors and the last part of it is:

(II) NVIDIA(0): Memory and vga registers mapped
(II) NVIDIA(0): Verifying AGP usage for Screen 0...
(II) NVIDIA(0): AGP 4X successfully initialized
(II) NVIDIA(0): kernel module enabled successfully
(II) NVIDIA(0): Interrupts enabled
(II) NVIDIA(0): No MetaMode found for mode "1024x768"
(II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "1024x768"

which tells me nothing. Does anybody have a solution for this problem?

Hardware is:
AMD Duron 1200
MSI 745 ultra motherboard
Geforce2 MX 400

Thanks in advance for any help, and sorry for my bad english.


Zoran

[TRON21Net]

Wow! I have the same problem except my video card is a GeForce4 Ti 4200...

If someone can solve this problem then that would be wonderful and I can say from experience it is not a hardware problem when it comes to BIOS settings, I've tried everything.

Specs:
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (266Mhz FSB), 2.75volt
Board: Abit NF7 v1.1 (all hardware enabled: USB, audio, etc..)
Power: 300 watts Generic, AMD approved(supposely)
RAM: 512MB PC2700 333MHz, 2.5volt
Video: PNY GeForce4 Ti 4200 64MB, 4X mode
Misc.: 2 PCI cards(firewire, ethernet), 3 HDDs(6GB, 20GB, 40GB), Bus Link DVD-ROM Drive.

[Andy Mecham]

Can you post a complete, verbose log? (startx -- -logverbose 5)

--andy

[TRON21Net]

Sure and it is always the same thing

its the attached file :P

[zoran]

Here's my verbose log if anyone is interested.

[Andy Mecham]

Can you both try 1.0-4349?

--andy

[TRON21Net]

I'm still getting the same thing, nothing changed except it locked up a lot quicker and no flickering on the screen this time.

I just installed the latest drivers too. :(



Do you think this could be because lack of power? I just ordered a new power supply last night and I'm going to see if that is the case. I won't receive the new power supply until Thursday. I ordered this one: http://www.directron.com/tt520ss4fanb.html

The reason why I ordered that very one is because I've seen near perfect ratings on that power supply on overclocker sites. :)


Note: I checked the XFree86 log and it's the same as the one I put on this thread. It seems that the operating system locks up immediately when the video drivers kick in and the hardware doesn't lockup until a few seconds after(for example I could still mess with the caps lock and number lock keys watching the LEDs come on and off). After a few minutes everything is dead, but the reset button still works(so it doesn't appear to be a motherboard problem.)

[zoran]

Same thing as before. :( It locks at the same spot, and log looks pretty much the same to me.
One odd thing I noticed in log is line:

(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoRAM: 32768 kBytes

because I'm conviced my card has 64MB (when I boot my PC, BIOS says so).

And BTW, the uninstaller should have done another ldconfig.

Any suggestions are welcome.

[Asthoth]

I have an Epox 8rda+ with nforce2 driver and a geforce4 ti4600 and i can't use it under linux , with nvidia driver. NV driver works, but is too slow, but nvidia driver freeze my system, and the only solution is connect by ssh and kill X, i see xfree log and stop in the same thing that the first thread. I see /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/stats , and all fine. I'm think to sell my epox and buy another with other chipset, nforce2 don't want to work under linux ...

[zaf]

I'm having the same problem. VIA KT-333 motherboard, Athlon XP 1900+, 32MB GeForce2MX

[TRON21Net]

Hmmm. Well let's everyone post their power supply's wattage so we can see if we all can compare a match up to see if that's an problem. My power supply's wattage is 300. :P

[zoran]

Well my power supply also has 300W but I doubt you can conclude anything with that peice of information.

Can anyone give me some suggestion regarding what to try next:

1. Try it with different distro? Whic one?
2. Try some older driver? Which one? I tried 4349, 4191 and 3128 (I think).
3. Try to mess with BIOS? What?
4. Try to mess with nvidia driver options? What?
5. Something else?

It's a real bother to experiment when your PC keeps hard locking after every startx.


Zoran

[Ralph Scharpf]

Hi,

I also had the"black screen with character" effect. It seems to be caused by the latest BIOS version from EPOX. This version can easily be identified by a printout which tells you that dual memory bus support has been enabled.

All other BIOS versions from Epox seem to work fine at my EP-8RDA+ but the performance of GLX is not optimal (should be factor 1.8 faster).

Ralph

[trycoon]

Tried disabling the "Render" acceleration in XF86Config? AGP driver strength i BIOS?(Often set to "DA", try "EA")

:afro:

[TRON21Net]

Well I am using an Abit NF7 motherboard with nForce2 chipset so BIOS configuration and updates isn't really related to this problem. I really do believe it's the lack of power problem.

If you have a lot of stuff plugged into the hardware or using a motherboard that hogs power like me then this is most likely why. I will know for sure Friday evening since that is when I will finally have my new power supply and test it out.

[zaf]

Originally posted by TRON21Net


If you have a lot of stuff plugged into the hardware or using a motherboard that hogs power like me then this is most likely why. I will know for sure Friday evening since that is when I will finally have my new power supply and test it out.

I've removed all non-essential drives, fans, and cards from my machine and tried it, same problems. I think it's something besides power.

Has anyone found a fix for this yet??

[Andy Mecham]

I'd be interested to see if disabling AGP helps any of you.

--andy

[zaf]

Originally posted by Andy Mecham
I'd be interested to see if disabling AGP helps any of you.

--andy

how?

[Andy Mecham]

How do you disable AGP? Add the line


Option "NvAgp" "0"


to the Device section of your XF86Config file.

--andy

[zaf]

Originally posted by Andy Mecham
I'd be interested to see if disabling AGP helps any of you.

--andy

OK, that gets it working

[Asthoth]

I make work my epox 8rda+ with nvidia driver. The problem was , the bios version, the las bios 05/03/2003 make problems with agp, with the version of 29/02/2003 it works :) .

[zoran]

Originally posted by Andy Mecham
I'd be interested to see if disabling AGP helps any of you.

--andy

I tried disabling AGP with 4349 and 4191 with no luck :(

Next suggestion?

[andyb@b5]

I'm currently running a patched 2.4.19 kernel (device mapper patches) with the debian testing distro.

The machine is a dell inspiron 8200 laptop with a GeForce Go 440 (64Mb) I've held back to 31.23 but now tried to go to the 43.49 version. Like others here when I try and start X it crashes my machine (remote pings not answered, connected telnets stop)

Disabling agp seems to have no effect and the crash is quite spectacular in that only a partial write to the X log occurs and it contains no X info, a bit lof lsmod and other junk at the time of crashing.

X is 4.2.1 and I've tried as many combinations as possible.

BTW thanks for the clean uninstall option!

Regards
Andy

[Insodus]

I also have an 8RDA, and the same problem, X freezes up HARD after I installed the graphics drivers. Has anyone found a fix that keeps performance up to snuff?
I suppose I could try using an older BIOS but I had all kinds of other problems with the BIOS that the mobo was shipped with so I'd like to have a better fix.

[update]
I tried disabling agp, still same thing.
Here is my X log as well...
XFree86.0.log (http://insodus.servehttp.com/XFree86.0.log)

[Insodus]

Well Asthoth was right, its all in the BIOS. Anyone with an nForce2 mobo I suggest trying out a few different BIOS's if X is freezing up, and if you have an 8RDA, use the 1/19/2003 release. I was using the most current one and having all kinds of problems, i flashed the 1/19's and now all is well, thing is fast as hell.

cheers