What causes my video to freeze?

[DTM63]

I am using an older version of the drivers as indicated in the installation procedure ( http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/printer-friendly.php#video ) for MythTV. :

"For users of nVidia Video Cards:

We're NOT going to install nVidia's latest video drivers, as they break a few things that we need/desire. Instead, we'll go with an older version, 1.0-4363, which provides the necessary support for TwinView, TV-out, overscan and XvMC. For some reason, nVidia just can't seem to get it right with later versions, though I haven't yet had a chance to test the latest version..."

I do not have the experience or knowledge to experiment with untested (for MythTV) installations.

My system:

Asus A7V8X-X with AMD xp2200 and 512MB ram
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 250
nVidia GeForce FX 5200 AGP 128MB DDR
- Model: GeForce FX 5200
- IRQ: 11
- Video BIOS: 04.34.20.42.00
- Card Type: AGP
- Driver Version: 1.0-4363
Running Fedora Core 1

I am building a MythTV system and I have finished the installation of the applications. I have been testing it for several days and now the problem I am haveing is the display freezes when I play back recorded shows or watch live TV on the computer screen. I can see that the system seems to continue working (i.e. the show still records in the background). Attached are some files. Do I have it setup correctly? What is causing the freeze up?

Thanks Dan

[Thunderbird]

Really you need to use a newer driver version. Not sure when the mythtv guys wrote those docs and what problems they have. The 4363 drivers were one of the first with GeforceFX support, updating might really help.

[DTM63]

Okay T-bird, I took your advice and installed the latest drivers and it caused my system to lock up every time about a minute after rebooting and logging in. I never even get to playing video before it locks up. I used the uninstall method from the readme and it did not work as advertised, but I got my system back up.

Do you have any other suggestions or does anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks Dan

[whig]

Some ideas...

Tune NvAGP (look in the nVidia docs)
Try latest production kernel
And seeing as you have an Athlon check your ram - memtest86

[DTM63]

Yeah, I still have problems with the video freezing when playing mpeg2 files using the 4363 driver. Do you have any specific tuning suggestions? I am very much less than an expert at this, so please be as specific as possible.

I have tried the latest drivers, but the video card freezes just a few seconds after starting X. Also for my Mythtv installation, Jarod tells me even the newest Nvidia drivers break things that Mythtv needs (see origional post) that worked in the 4363 driver.

I obviously have a problem that many people are interested in because there have been over 100 hits on this post. Please keep that in mind.

Thanks again
Dan

[yodaofborg]

I agree with thunderbird, update them drivers, there almost archaic now, and as the fx5200 was only just being produced/just produced, the support in the drivers at that time were really lacking support for the fx series.. have found the *not sure if there official* 5341 to work on most systems i have happened to test them on, plus, you get to have a look at the nvidia-settings utility *only for brightness/gamma as yet, hoping its going to include twinview settings soon* if these do infact break things for stuff MythTV needs/desire, i think it could be an issue for them, not nvidia ... *using old libararies/modules just so you dont have to keep upto date is NOT an option, any developer/soft or hardware tech knows this....*

Try using the nvidia Agp interface instead of agpart *see the nvidia readme*

Are you sure your system is stable? i mean althon (we call them durex at work, use once and throw away.....lol, applicible to all amd procs, not just the duron...lol)...lol, sorry, im an intel kinda guy...lol <-- i know, bad humour....lol

Try running memtest or another prog that runs in its own *os* (ie, ya boot from a floppy...lol) see if its unstable there too, or ya could always stick windaz on it, if for nothing else, its good at crashing, and can give a good indication of a systems performance (try runnin a prog like 3dmark on a loop 4 a few hours...)


*could this be a MythTV/linux problem, and not an nvidia one?* just a thought...

[DTM63]

Okay, I guess I was not clear on how the latest drivers work on my system. I login to the system using a GUI (KDE) and about the time I think about opening a terminal window, the video freezes. Notice the the word "video". I can still access the machine from a telnet session. At least with the older drivers I am able to run Linux for as many as 36 hours at at time and configure applications and run Mythtv. I can even start to watch TV or something I recorded, but after 5-10 minutes the "video" freezes.

If you have a suggestion about how I can get the latest drivers to work at all, I would be happy to re-install them and try again.

As for stable, I have been running AMD processors for about 12 years and have had no problems to speak of. My oldest AMD system is about 5 years old and I have no complaints (but it is time to think about an upgrade).

Dan