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Groups > comp.os.linux.misc > #13814 > unrolled thread

What hardware/software fault could cause this?

Started byThe Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
First post2015-03-01 13:51 +0000
Last post2015-03-03 22:49 +0000
Articles 11 — 8 participants

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  What hardware/software fault could cause this? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-03-01 13:51 +0000
    Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-03-01 15:31 +0000
    Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? ray carter <ray@zianet.com> - 2015-03-01 15:53 +0000
      Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-03-01 17:13 +0000
        Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-03-01 19:41 +0000
          Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2015-03-02 17:45 +0000
        Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? Chris Davies <chris-usenet@roaima.co.uk> - 2015-03-02 18:11 +0000
    Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2015-03-01 17:16 +0000
    Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? William Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca> - 2015-03-01 17:25 +0000
      Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? gamo <gamo@telecable.es> - 2015-03-02 10:44 +0100
    Re: What hardware/software fault could cause this? J G Miller <miller@yoyo.ORG> - 2015-03-03 22:49 +0000

#13814 — What hardware/software fault could cause this?

FromThe Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Date2015-03-01 13:51 +0000
SubjectWhat hardware/software fault could cause this?
Message-ID<mcv5hr$5q7$1@news.albasani.net>
Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system Radeon 9500 to Mint 17.1 
yesterday. Mostly it worked. Passed a basic RAM check..

But after a while it would always lock up in one of tow different ways.

Oddly some stuff seemed to work in daemon mode after it junked. I was 
copying a large file to it via smbd when it froze but the file transfer 
completed.

The symptoms were either a completely blank screen with 'no signal' 
reported by the monitor, or a frozen screen and keyboard but with mouse 
movement still observed.

I have abandonded the attempt to turn it into something usable and left 
it in windows XP mode, because it wasn't powerful enough for the task it 
was being resurrected for.

But I am still curious. I cant see what exactly could cause this, 
especially a total lack of video output.


-- 
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the 
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. – Erwin Knoll

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#13815

FromThe Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Date2015-03-01 15:31 +0000
Message-ID<mcvbck$h18$1@news.albasani.net>
In reply to#13814
On 01/03/15 14:47, Chester A. Arthur wrote:
> On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 13:51:55 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
>> Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system Radeon 9500 to Mint 17.1
>> yesterday. Mostly it worked. Passed a basic RAM check..
>>
>> But after a while it would always lock up in one of tow different ways.
>>
>> Oddly some stuff seemed to work in daemon mode after it junked. I was
>> copying a large file to it via smbd when it froze but the file transfer
>> completed.
>>
>> The symptoms were either a completely blank screen with 'no signal'
>> reported by the monitor, or a frozen screen and keyboard but with mouse
>> movement still observed.
>>
>> I have abandonded the attempt to turn it into something usable and left
>> it in windows XP mode, because it wasn't powerful enough for the task it
>> was being resurrected for.
>>
>> But I am still curious. I cant see what exactly could cause this,
>> especially a total lack of video output.
>
> I repaired & maintained mainframes & minis back in the 80s, and my
> experience is that when you get symptoms that you can't diagnose, or
> that make no sense, suspect the power supply. Has the system been
> sitting unused for awhile?
>
Nope. runs windows fine...


-- 
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the 
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. – Erwin Knoll

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#13816

Fromray carter <ray@zianet.com>
Date2015-03-01 15:53 +0000
Message-ID<clgqvqF5203U1@mid.individual.net>
In reply to#13814
On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 13:51:55 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system Radeon 9500 to Mint 17.1
> yesterday. Mostly it worked. Passed a basic RAM check..
> 
> But after a while it would always lock up in one of tow different ways.
> 
> Oddly some stuff seemed to work in daemon mode after it junked. I was
> copying a large file to it via smbd when it froze but the file transfer
> completed.
> 
> The symptoms were either a completely blank screen with 'no signal'
> reported by the monitor, or a frozen screen and keyboard but with mouse
> movement still observed.
> 
> I have abandonded the attempt to turn it into something usable and left
> it in windows XP mode, because it wasn't powerful enough for the task it
> was being resurrected for.
> 
> But I am still curious. I cant see what exactly could cause this,
> especially a total lack of video output.

Since it runs xp ok, I might suspect some obscure video driver issue. 
Have you tried a distro designed for older hardware?

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#13820

FromCharlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid>
Date2015-03-01 17:13 +0000
Message-ID<mcvhcc03060@news6.newsguy.com>
In reply to#13816
On 2015-03-01, ray carter <ray@zianet.com> wrote:

> On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 13:51:55 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
>> Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system Radeon 9500 to Mint 17.1
>> yesterday. Mostly it worked. Passed a basic RAM check..
>> 
>> But after a while it would always lock up in one of tow different ways.
>> 
>> Oddly some stuff seemed to work in daemon mode after it junked. I was
>> copying a large file to it via smbd when it froze but the file transfer
>> completed.
>> 
>> The symptoms were either a completely blank screen with 'no signal'
>> reported by the monitor, or a frozen screen and keyboard but with mouse
>> movement still observed.
>> 
>> I have abandonded the attempt to turn it into something usable and left
>> it in windows XP mode, because it wasn't powerful enough for the task it
>> was being resurrected for.
>> 
>> But I am still curious. I cant see what exactly could cause this,
>> especially a total lack of video output.
>
> Since it runs xp ok, I might suspect some obscure video driver issue. 
> Have you tried a distro designed for older hardware?

Is the video card made by nVidia?  On my systems I've noticed that the
nouveau driver wedges from time to time.  This leaves a frozen screen
but you can still ssh into it (and reboot it) from another machine on
the network.

Try downloading and installing the driver from nVidia's web site.
Yes, I know, it's proprietary binary-only software.  But it works.

-- 
/~\  cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ /  I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
 X   Top-posted messages will probably be ignored.  See RFC1855.
/ \  HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored.  Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!

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#13830

FromThe Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Date2015-03-01 19:41 +0000
Message-ID<mcvq13$dgg$1@news.albasani.net>
In reply to#13820
On 01/03/15 17:13, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
> On 2015-03-01, ray carter <ray@zianet.com> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 01 Mar 2015 13:51:55 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>
>>> Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system Radeon 9500 to Mint 17.1
>>> yesterday. Mostly it worked. Passed a basic RAM check..
>>>
>>> But after a while it would always lock up in one of tow different ways.
>>>
>>> Oddly some stuff seemed to work in daemon mode after it junked. I was
>>> copying a large file to it via smbd when it froze but the file transfer
>>> completed.
>>>
>>> The symptoms were either a completely blank screen with 'no signal'
>>> reported by the monitor, or a frozen screen and keyboard but with mouse
>>> movement still observed.
>>>
>>> I have abandonded the attempt to turn it into something usable and left
>>> it in windows XP mode, because it wasn't powerful enough for the task it
>>> was being resurrected for.
>>>
>>> But I am still curious. I cant see what exactly could cause this,
>>> especially a total lack of video output.
>>
>> Since it runs xp ok, I might suspect some obscure video driver issue.
>> Have you tried a distro designed for older hardware?
>
> Is the video card made by nVidia?

"Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system *Radeon 9500*"
  On my systems I've noticed that the
> nouveau driver wedges from time to time.  This leaves a frozen screen
> but you can still ssh into it (and reboot it) from another machine on
> the network.
>
> Try downloading and installing the driver from nVidia's web site.
> Yes, I know, it's proprietary binary-only software.  But it works.
>


-- 
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the 
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. – Erwin Knoll

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#13846

FromCharlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid>
Date2015-03-02 17:45 +0000
Message-ID<md27j314u7@news7.newsguy.com>
In reply to#13830
On 2015-03-01, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> On 01/03/15 17:13, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>
>> Is the video card made by nVidia?
>
> "Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system *Radeon 9500*"

<slaps forehead> D'oh!

-- 
/~\  cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ /  I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
 X   Top-posted messages will probably be ignored.  See RFC1855.
/ \  HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored.  Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!

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#13848

FromChris Davies <chris-usenet@roaima.co.uk>
Date2015-03-02 18:11 +0000
Message-ID<6olesbxkqj.ln2@news.roaima.co.uk>
In reply to#13820
Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> wrote:
> Is the video card made by nVidia?  On my systems I've noticed that the
> nouveau driver wedges from time to time.  This leaves a frozen screen
> but you can still ssh into it (and reboot it) from another machine on
> the network.

Nouveau (and therefore Mint 17 "out of the box") won't run on my Dell
D820 laptop. I had to replace the drivers with the Debian's NVidia
"legacy" ones before anything would work in graphics mode.

> Try downloading and installing the driver from nVidia's web site.

There's a package, at least on my LMDE variant of Mint, to do all that
automatically. Install and run nvidia-detect and then install the package
it recommends.

Chris

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#13821

FromRich <rich@example.invalid>
Date2015-03-01 17:16 +0000
Message-ID<mcvhgh$t9n$2@dont-email.me>
In reply to#13814
The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system Radeon 9500 to Mint 17.1 
> yesterday. Mostly it worked. Passed a basic RAM check..

> But after a while it would always lock up in one of tow different ways.

> ...

The description of your lockups sound a lot like what happens when a
memory stick contains a bad (or intermittent) cell.

Run memtest86 on it for a while (http://www.memtest86.com/) see if it
reports anything.

I believe recent Slackware boot disks (i.e., 14.1) contain memtest86 on
the boot disk, so all you would need is the ability to boot a DVD on
the machine to run memtest86 on it.

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#13823

FromWilliam Unruh <unruh@invalid.ca>
Date2015-03-01 17:25 +0000
Message-ID<mcvi1h$1gs$2@dont-email.me>
In reply to#13814
On 2015-03-01, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
> Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system Radeon 9500 to Mint 17.1 
> yesterday. Mostly it worked. Passed a basic RAM check..
>
> But after a while it would always lock up in one of tow different ways.

No, it would not lock up, the X or video card  would lock up. As you
notice, stuff is still going on behind the blank screen. 
>
> Oddly some stuff seemed to work in daemon mode after it junked. I was 
> copying a large file to it via smbd when it froze but the file transfer 
> completed.
>
> The symptoms were either a completely blank screen with 'no signal' 
> reported by the monitor, or a frozen screen and keyboard but with mouse 
> movement still observed.
>
> I have abandonded the attempt to turn it into something usable and left 
> it in windows XP mode, because it wasn't powerful enough for the task it 
> was being resurrected for.
>
> But I am still curious. I cant see what exactly could cause this, 
> especially a total lack of video output.

A crashed video driver. 

>
>

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#13842

Fromgamo <gamo@telecable.es>
Date2015-03-02 10:44 +0100
Message-ID<md1beq$m6n$1@speranza.aioe.org>
In reply to#13823
El 01/03/15 a las 18:25, William Unruh escribió:
>> But I am still curious. I cant see what exactly could cause this,
>> >especially a total lack of video output.

> A crashed video driver.
>

I had an ATI card that crashed when the vacuum was passed near by.

-- 
http://www.telecable.es/personales/gamo/
The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to chance

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#13854

FromJ G Miller <miller@yoyo.ORG>
Date2015-03-03 22:49 +0000
Message-ID<md5dpt$ivu$8@dont-email.me>
In reply to#13814
On Sunday, March 1st, 2015, at 13:51:55h +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> Tried to upgrade an old Pentium IV system Radeon 9500 to Mint 17.1 
> yesterday. Mostly it worked. Passed a basic RAM check..

Are you using the standard (free and not proprietary fglrx) radeon kernel module?

 lsmod | grep rad
radeon               1416373  2 
i2c_algo_bit           13197  1 radeon
drm_kms_helper         46907  1 radeon
ttm                    72698  1 radeon
drm                   243792  4 ttm,drm_kms_helper,radeon

This has long had problems with intermittent hard lockups of the system,
sometimes caused by some OpenGL screen savers as well as scrolling
the mouse wheel in Firefox, or visiting the web site RottenTomatoes
(probably some flash stuff) often accompanied by messages in syslog

 EQ overflowing. The server is probably stuck in an infinite loop.

Nobody seems to want to fix the problem despite being reported years ago,
so one just has to learn to live with it, unless one can replace the
Radeon with an NVidia graphics card.

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