Video Card Compatibility

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: Video Card Compatibility
started by: techguy

Posted by techguy on Feb. 27 2004,17:49

I run Windows XP Pro as a business desktop, only because it's the standard at my organization. After downloading and using DSL, I could not boot back into the original host OS for the workstation. After some initial troubleshooting, I found that the DSL session had fried my AGP video card. Luckily, it's under warranty, and I also had that ability to fall back on the onboard video card. This will absolutely prevent me from using DSL in the future.

Video card damaged:
(as Dell reports it:

Part Number: 6T097
Description: Card (Circuit), GRPHC, ATI, RDN, Low Profile, Memory Board, Memory, 2

signed,
bummed

Posted by John on Feb. 27 2004,20:58

What X server did you use? And what resolution? What happened when the X session started? Did you exit using the menu? Anything unusual happen?

Posted by Rapidweather on Feb. 28 2004,00:47

I find that DSL is very gentle on monitors & video cards, compared to a main
distro such as Mandrake or Redhat, where one can edit the /etc/XF86Config file, and ask the machine to use a horizontal or vertical refresh rate that could in fact harm the machine.
We are not allowed to tinker with that in DSL, so are protected from that sort of thing.
With modern monitors, impossible refresh rates are blocked anyway.
I have worked with Slackware, Debian, SuSE, Mandrake, Redhat, and others,
and have tweaked the /etc/XF86Config file to try and get a better display, or
whatever. The video cards often won't support some resolutions, but I have not
had a card go bad during these experiments. I did have an S3 Trio 64V+ go bad once, in Windows 98, but it was just time for that card, not the fault of the OS.
---
No one should, in my opinion, be deterred from using DSL for fear of ruining a
video card. That is not to say that it is impossible for a card to go bad at the same time that DSL is running, or for that matter, any other Linux or Windows OS.
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I have used DSL on a machine with XP pro, and things work fine. Trick on a LCD monitor is to use this knoppix cheatcode:
boot: knoppix vga=normal
Otherwise you get a blank screen in DSL. (You can reboot into Windows XP, and all is fine)
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:;):

Posted by hasty on Feb. 28 2004,12:51

Highly unlikely given the limited refresh rate.

Cards do die though