8600 GT - TV-Out problems - X hangs

[skub]

Hello folks,

i spent dozens of hours reading readmes, howtos and hacking xorg.conf.

I encounter a strange error when enabling tv-out in any way (even without TwinView and TV-only)

I always end up with a blank screen after X has started (before NVidia-Logo).
Looking through ssh on the machine, i see that the X server takes 100% CPU, gdm claims to be starded as well, but most of the other x-specific processes are (still?) not running.

I have no errors in Xorg.0.log... there are even no interesting warnings..., last line says

(II) NVIDIA(0): Initialized GART.
(II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "CRT-0:800x600,TV-0:800x600"
(--) NVIDIA(0): No video decoder detected
(II) Loading extension NV-GLX

after this line i would expect some stuff like my CRT-only gives me:

(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA 3D Acceleration Architecture Initialized
[...]
(II) Loading extension NV-CONTROL
(==) RandR enabled
(II) Initializing built-in extension [...]
[...]

The X-Server is not killable after this, sending kill -9 makes it a zombie (child of init) i have to reboot (which takes enormous time and a couple of "beeps", until kernel kicks this zombie) after reboot there are still no new entries in Xorg.log last one: "(II) Loading extension NV-GLX"


What i tried:

- Option "UseEDID" "false" - no effect
- 169.04 (? latest beta driver) - complains that due to hardware constraints TV-0 will be disabled
- Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT, TV" - to skip any kind of "autodetection" - no effect
- 100.14.23 - guess what: no effect...
- tv only
- booting without TV and pluging it in later
- setting SVideo or Composite
- sleeping one night, and trying everything again ;-)

i attach my conf, log and a verbose lspci
for whatever reason the card is detected as "01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0402 (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA])"

the box says: "MSI nx8600gt" but i cant find the exact matching card on the msi-page, as my one is a "Low Profile"-Modell here you find some german infos about exactly the same card.



X-killing-action:

sofa:~# ps aux | grep X
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root      3292 98.8  2.3  17888 12020 tty7     RLs+ 02:31   3:23 /usr/bin/X :0 -audit 0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7
sofa:~# kill -9 3292
sofa:~# ps aux | grep X
USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root      3292 99.0  0.0      0     0 ?        Rs   02:31   3:43 [Xorg]
sofa:~# tail -n 5 /var/log/Xorg.0.log
        [40] 0  0       0x000003c0 - 0x000003df (0x20) IS[b](OprU)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Initialized GART.
(II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "CRT-0:800x600,TV-0:800x600"
(--) NVIDIA(0): No video decoder detected
(II) Loading extension NV-GLX

it takes roughly 5 minutes until the X process stops... after the complete stop i also created a nvidia-bug-report which is also attached

every help or hint would be greatly appreciated... you know... changing the TV and the simple to-use receiver in the living room into a pc and a clumsy CRT monitor and spending couple of days until 2 am to get this working _GREATLY_ reduces the WAF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAF)... help me not loosing my face ;-)

greetings...
...skub

[skub]

as i am out of ideas, i will try with a fresh debian (stable) installation.
i will update this post if things change... (or dont change)

greetings...
...skub

[skub]

unfortunately it has nothing to do with a weired configuration on my site.
so again spend a couple of hours for nothing...

i installed debain 4.0 (stable) with only the minimum of needed packages to only compile NVIDIA drivers and run X with gdm.
i only altered one config file from base-installation, xorg.conf (and of course /etc/apt/sources.list) and added this options:

    Option "MetaModes" "CRT-0: 800x600, TV-0: 800x600; CRT-0: 640x400, TV-0: 640x400"
    Option "HorizSync" "CRT-0: 30-115; TV-0: 30-50"
    Option "VertRefresh" "CRT-0: 50-160; TV-0: 60"
    Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B" 
    Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"

All other configuration files are "debian-default". (beside the ones the NVIDIA-installer altered during installation)


Again i run into the problem that as soon as i enable any TV-related configurations within xorg.conf i get an 100% CPU load X server with black screen.

this time i created the nvidia bugreport while the xserver was running...
the attached log is created with:

X -logverbose 6 -verbose 6

additionally i attached the output of "dpkg --list" with all my installed packages and version. as you see i installed only the bare minimum...

i hope someone can give me some hints... i am completely out of ideas now...

tv-out and hdmi (where i currently have no tv for) are the basic reasons why i bought this card... i am afraid that i have to send the newly acquired nvidia card back to the retailer... as i have no windows where i could use this device...

BTW: someone interested in a nearly new 8600 GT Low Profile (fits nicely into small HTPC's) with HDMI and TV-Out? with a bunch of cables and adapters for D-SUB for example. ;-)

greetings...
...skub

[skub]

.

[skub]

Issue solved,

resoultion was quite simple:
- send card back to the retailer you bought it.
- buy a ATI card instead.

NVIDIA lost a customer... and for sure i will multiply my opinion among other HTPC users...

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish...
...skub