Other Help Topics :: DSL as a Hardware Diagnostic

I have a new motherboard that is giving problems. When I boot anything but DSL it locks after a few attempts to browse the web.
When I run DSL it doesn't lock up, but all the windows are presented with red borders.
Also, no Icons (this is 3.1) and the tool for mounting drives on the system is also not present (can't remember what that widget is called ;-)
I'm just curios to know what DSL is trying to tell me by this behavior. I need to tell the vendor something besides this longwinded explanation, like spurious interrupts from the graphics chipset or something like that. (Don't know why, but I suspect the video hardware isn't up-to-snuff)
Anyone have any ideas?

I think the problem might be due to your graphics chip/card - there's quite a few details (boot codes, etc) in the wiki that you might try to test this.

Hadn't thought about Wiki. They have a really good overview, but I'm still not sure where to go from here.
What I am really curious about is just what situations block the presentation of Icons on the desktop, but more than that, what causes the window borders to be rendered in Red?

There are only two sets of cheat codes that look promising, but the first (disabling hardware detection)doesn't seem to have a code for the video. The other is the video modes options.

Did you have something different in mind?

afaik xtdesktop fails to load on screens with low bit depth... you probably need to configure your display (video bootcodes, xsetup, etc.), if it isn't something else (i.e. low memory)

original here.