Black Screen and Blue Flicker, sometime ASCII , ALL kernels, Geforce 3 Ti200

[nailchipper]

sorry.. for double posting. i put it in wrong section.

The screen used to go black, and flicker blue once, and stop responding. number lock works... i can SSH into machine to get logs.. if i try and kill X it crashes the machine hard... complete lock out...

when i run ps aux i can see X is running 99% of CPU

All the options enabled in XFConfig below have been added (when options are removed the flicker happens.. if not I now get a screen with ASCII printed.. just junk.. no flicker.

I have:
Athlon XP 2200
Soyo Ultra Platinum, KT333
PNY GeForce 3 Ti200
Crucial 512 DDR-333
ALL tested kernels (2.4.22+, 2.6.x)
ALL distributions (Fedora, Redhat, Debian)

I have tested with following kernel options on and off:
ACPI/APM
Fb-Nvidia/Riva
Pre-empt


The Log is attached below and this is my XFConfig File:

# XFree86 4 configuration created by redhat-config-xfree86

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "DevInputMice" "AlwaysCore"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
# Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
# Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
# Option "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
#
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# If the normal CorePointer mouse is not a USB mouse then
# this input device can be used in AlwaysCore mode to let you
# also use USB mice at the same time.
Identifier "DevInputMice"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Quantex TE1564M - Super View 1280"
HorizSync 31.5 - 82.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 90.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 3 (generic)"
Option "ReqAGPRate" "4"
Option "NvAgp" "0"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT"
Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "DFP, TV"
Option "IgnoreEDID"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
EndSection

#Section "DRI"
# Group 0
# Mode 0666
#EndSection

[clocker]

These are the kernels I have headers for.
kernel-2.4.20-20.7
kernel-2.4.20-27.7

This is a Redhat 7.2 box. I'm now three kernels behind because I can't make the video modules perform in any other configuration than I have now. Which is to say that the kernel-2.4.20-20.7 and the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run is my only combination if I want X available.

I'm running the 2.4.20-20.7 kernel with the older NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run

When running NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5328-pkg1.run I get a blank screen and all I can do is reboot. I can't kill it with "ctl-alt-bksp" and I can't get to a virtual terminal. I do a "ctl-alt-del" and it reboots nicely.

[root@weasles X11]# cat XF86Config-4
# XFree86 4.0 configuration generated by Xconfigurator

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

# By default, Red Hat Linux 6.0 and later use xfs

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/default/TrueType
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ja/TrueType
EndSection

# Module loading section

Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double-buffering
# Load "GLcore" # OpenGL support
# Load "dri" # Direct rendering infrastructure
Load "glx" # OpenGL X protocol interface
Load "extmod" # Misc. required extensions
Load "v4l" # Video4Linux
# Load "pex5" # PHIGS for X 3D environment (obsolete)
# Load "record" # X event recorder
# Load "xie" # X Image Extension (obsolete)
# You only need the following two modules if you do not use xfs.
Load "freetype" # TrueType font handler
# Load "type1" # Adobe Type 1 font handler
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
# Modified by mouseconfig
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "My Monitor"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 31.5 - 48.5
VertRefresh 50-70
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia Corporation|NV11"
Driver "nvidia"
BoardName "Unknown"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Linux Frame Buffer"
Driver "fbdev"
BoardName "Unknown"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "nVidia Corporation|NV11"
Monitor "My Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

I neglected to save a log file from when I was playing with this last week-end as I hadn't intened to get time to post this. I reviewed the log though and found no errors. If I read nailchipper's log correctly his didn't show any errors either.

Any clues as to how to solve this would be appreciated. This problem is rapidly rendering my operating systme a liability.

Thanks..