Freezing problems with a 7600GS AGP

[irCuBiC]

I just bought myself a new graphics card, since my old GF4 broke down; an MSI NX7600GS AGP, and I've been having some problems with freezing upon startup of X.
I did some testing with both Linux and Windows drivers, and came to the conclusion that it works as long as I don't load any AGP drivers, both in Windows and Linux. This is on an nForce board (an Asus A7N266-VM, to be exact. And yes, I know it's ancient, but I don't have the money to get a new one, as I'd have to get a new CPU too).

In Linux, I've figured out that it seems to run fine with AGP enabled as long as I don't run any programs that try to render a lot on their own (opera, aMSN, dillo, GDM, etc), but once I do, it seems like the drivers lock up. I can't do anything (although I was able to move the mouse with HWcursors enabled), but the "magic SysRq" key still works to reboot. I don't get any error messages in the logs or anything that I can see, it just dies.
If I run with "NvAGP" set to "0", everything runs without any crashes as far as I've seen. It also seems that it fails to load AGP if I try to force it to use agpgart (NvAGP=2), so that doesn't seem to be an option.
I'm currently running Gentoo (with the newest nvidia-drivers, currently 8774), but I tested it with Ubuntu too (with their 8762 drivers), and the exact same problems happen there.

Since I wasn't sure if this was my hardware, or just the linux drivers, I tested in Windows too. In Windows the card seems to work fine (as far as not crashing goes) until I install the nForce GARP drivers. When those are installed, Windows goes through the bootup (with the loading bar and stuff) and then the screen just blanks, and I can't do anything but hit the reset button on the machine. If I then boot into "VGA mode", it still runs, until I try to change resolutions (I think this changes from the VGA drivers to the nVidia ones). This happens both with the forceware drivers and the vendor-supplied ones.

My card seems to run the latest BIOS (at least the MSI utility seems to think so), but my mobo isn't all the way updated (I currently don't have a floppy drive in the machine, so I can't flash it yet, I'm working on that).

So, I'm wondering, could this be a driver problem, either in the nForce AGP drivers or the Geforce ones, or could this be a hardware one? Do the linux drivers even support my card yet? (I noticed that the Windows drivers JUST got support for it, and I don't know whether the linux ones are ahead or behind ) Is this a known problem? (I did search before posting, couldn't find much of relevance really...)

I don't really mind running without AGP, as I don't really game much nowadays, but I really feel better with my stuff running as well as they can.

Attached is the bug-report log while running without AGP, I think I could produce one while running with AGP enabled if that's needed too (just have to be careful not to start something that will cause it to freeze ).

Thanks.

[netllama]

From the information that you've provided, it sounds like this is either an AGP driver problem, or a AGP signal integrity problem on the motherboard. Other than verifying that you're using the latest motherboard BIOS, I think setting NvAGP to 0 is the best workaround.

Thanks,
Lonni

[intervigilium]

I just got the same MSI 7600GS AGP card today, and I'm also having the same sort of problems. So long as I don't run any sort of program which tries to render anything of it's own (firefox, epsxe, thunderbird, etc) it will not lock up, but once I do the computer becomes unresponsive and I have to reset it. The difference for me however is that I can't get it run stably at all, even with NvAGP set to "0". The motherboard in question is an Iwill DK8X, and it is fully up to date. (BIOS is the newest available on the Iwill site) I don't own a copy of Windows to test it out on, so I can't get you feedback there. I've got several sets of nvidia bug reports though, with AGP on and off, running Xgl and running standard Xorg.

[Izuil]

As i understod it you guys have the same card and somewhat the same problem...
Maybe it's in the graphic cards bios the error is...

Check it out here: http://www.msi.com.tw/program/search...?pro=2&chp=286 (I think this should be your card)

[cincybone]

.

[JRepin]

I also have problems with my new Club 3D 7600GS AGP that I bought yesterday. On the same system I had Leadtek Winfast A400 TDH before. All else is the same, I only switched the cards. I had no problems with the old card, but with the new one the entire system just locks up or freezes sometimes. I first noticed the problem when computer froze with OpenGL screensaver running (Solar Winds). At first I thought that this happens only with OpenGL apps. Than I tried with a normal 2D screensaver (Wormhole) and sure after I let it run for a long time the computer just froze.

The system is:
* CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual-Core
* MB: Gigabyte GA-K8NSC, nForce 3, socker 939
* OS: Mandriva Linux 2007
* Kernel: 2.6.17

I tried drivers 1.0-8774 and 1.0-9631, but they both give the same problem.

[netllama]

I have a few questions:
0) Does this problem also occur with 1.0-9746?
1) Have you verified that you're using the latest motherboard BIOS?
2) If you set NvAGP to 0 in the Device section of xorg.conf (and restart X), does that help?

Thanks,
Lonni

[JRepin]

Originally Posted by netllama

I have a few questions:
0) Does this problem also occur with 1.0-9746?

Didn't try those yet. I also thought that this would make no change since no bug fixes are mentioned in release notes, only some added support for Geforce 8 series cards. I'll try to find package for 1.0-9746 for Mandriva 2007 and try.

1) Have you verified that you're using the latest motherboard BIOS?

I've updated BIOS not so long ago and I think that there is no new BIOS version out, but I will check out just to be sure.

2) If you set NvAGP to 0 in the Device section of xorg.conf (and restart X), does that help?

I'll try this first, thanks for the suggestion and all your help.

[JRepin]

Originally Posted by netllama

I have a few questions:
2) If you set NvAGP to 0 in the Device section of xorg.conf (and restart X), does that help?

OK this doesn't help, Computer still freezes. But this time I managed to use SSH to connect to the frozen computer and I could see that X is using 100% of CPU. If I tried to use GDB to see the backtrace of the X process I could only see this:

0xb718dbdf in _nv001016X () from /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so

Oh yeah, I also checked for the latest BIOS and I'm using the latest version F8.

So I guess the only option now is that the latest drivers would help, but I can't find them for Mandriva 2007. I could only find ones for Mandriva 2007.1. I guess I'll try this and I very much hope they work. Otherwise I realy don't know what else to do.

[JRepin]

Drivers 1.0-9746 also don't help This time i get this in GDB:

0xb70de02f in _nv001058X () from /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so

Is there anything else I can do or am I left with a useless nVidia card until the new fixed drivers get released?

[nicola.dinisio]

I am experiencing the same problem with an ASUS N7600 GS.
I am running openSUSE 10.2 and the original drivers from NVIDIA packaged for openSUSE 10.2 (I have added the nvidia repository to YAST).

user@demon:~> rpm -q -a | grep nvidia
x11-video-nvidia-1.0.9631-0.1
nvidia-gfx-kmp-default-1.0.9631_2.6.18.2_34-0.1

I have tried the trick suggested above, NvAGP to 0, it does not help.
The only interesting thing I have noticed is that if I boot stopping at run-level 3 and then I login as root and command "init 5", then when I enter X the freeze takes a while to come, a couple of minutes, sometimes more. On the contrary, if I make a plain and simple boot up to the usual run-level 5, then the freeze may happen well before entering the password for logging in!
Even with the "run-level 3 trick, running compiz seem to make the freeze happen in 20-30 seconds.

The thing that makes me nuts is that this video card has been running fine for about a week, and with compiz!. Then all of a sudded stopped working. And no, I did not do any software update that could affect it (kernel, video drivers and the like).

Now the only thing I am left with is the open source driver "nv" (BTW running at 1280x1024 instead of 1600x1200, WTF?), this is the only way I can get some GUI access to my computer.

I am starting to think that there is an hardware problem, probably over-burnt in some parts, begin a passive-cooled card...

[JRepin]

OK, I even borrowed a Windows XP installation CD from a friend and did some tests in Windows. While it didn't freeze yet I have a feeling that the graphics card is very slow. For ecample I get these results:

3DMark03: 5753 (got 8920 with GeForce 6800)
3DMark05: 1827 (3349)
3DMark06: 1107 (N/A)

Are these scores with GeForce 7600 GS normal when compared with old card and with other 7600 GS cards?