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Topic: VIA chipset a problem?, Computer has trouble-various distros

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Doug W

Group: Members
Posts: 3
Joined: May 2007

Posted: Aug. 01 2007,03:01

Greetings,

I have tried DSL, DELi, Slackware, Puppy and a couple of others on this computer.

MOB: FIC VA 503+
CPU: Cyrix 333 MII
HDD: 4 gig Quantum 5400 RPM
RAM: 128 Meg
Sound: ES1370
Video: I forget-16 Meg PCI card

I have no idea why it is happening but the computer seems to freeze quite often with any of these distros. Sometimes, when I log on, all I see is large squares instead of a desktop. Can this somehow be related to the dreaded VIA chipset or possibly my own incompetence?

My old copy of Redhat 6.2 seems to work fine on this computer. Go figger.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks,
Doug

^thehatsrule^ Offline

Group: Members
Posts: 3275
Joined: July 2006

Posted: Aug. 01 2007,03:46

How are you running DSL?

You can check your video card/chipset by running System Stats or via console with `lspci -v`

There are some vga= cheatcodes, or some x settings (see xsetup) that you can use that may be better for your system.

You could also try a full x server (see mydsl) which may have a specific driver for your video hardware (or even those different tinyx servers - probably better to figure out what video system you have first though).

For the freezing, does it happen only in X? Could be related to your video problem. Or maybe it might be something easily set in your BIOS.

curaga

Group: Members
Posts: 2163
Joined: Feb. 2007

Posted: Aug. 01 2007,14:58

Via ide chipsets are buggy, but this could also be from the video card..

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Windows is not a virus. A virus does something!

Doug W

Group: Members
Posts: 3
Joined: May 2007

Posted: Aug. 02 2007,03:58

Thanks for the replies,

Quote

How are you running DSL?

Currently I am running Redhat 6.2 because that seems to be pretty stable for this computer but when I had DSL-N installed, I had a hard drive installation with LILO boot if that is what you are asking.

Quote

You can check your video card/chipset by running System Stats or via console with `lspci -v`

I ended up in setup and found my video card there: nVidia Riva TN2 Model 64.

Quote

You could also try a full x server (see mydsl) which may have a specific driver for your video hardware (or even those different tinyx servers - probably better to figure out what video system you have first though).

Not sure about "mydsl" that you refer to. I searched on the website here a bit but didn't find it.

Quote

For the freezing, does it happen only in X? Could be related to your video problem. Or maybe it might be something easily set in your BIOS

Consider me a Linux newbie, when you say X, you mean the GUI right? That is where the freezing takes place.

It is possible that I had some bad RAM. Just today, the puter was going back and for recognizing 64 Meg, then at next bootup 128, then 64. I ended up pulling out one of the 64 Meg sticks and putting in a 32 Meg stick in it's place so now I have a total of 96 Meg of RAM.

This old version of Redhat is pretty stable but there are some things I want to try with newer software. This was my first audio recording computer and at 16 bit 44.1 Mhz, and Win 95, I was able to do some decent, (at least in my own opinion), recordings so I thought I would try it with Linux. I have faster computers that I use for most of my recording stuff but using an audio recording program is the most fun way for me to learn Linux.

Thanks for your help ^thehatsrule^ and curaga

lucky13

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Posts: 1478
Joined: Feb. 2007

Posted: Aug. 02 2007,04:30

Quote

Not sure about "mydsl" that you refer to. I searched on the website here a bit but didn't find it.

Kind of hard to miss that.
http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/MydslPanel
http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Installing_MyDSL_Extensions
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/damnsmalllinux.org/mydsl/

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Consider me a Linux newbie, when you say X, you mean the GUI right?

It's more accurate to say that X allows for GUIs, but X is just the window system.

Quote

This old version of Redhat is pretty stable but there are some things I want to try with newer software.

That version is more contemporaneous with your hardware, which is why it's easier to install and load than some new-fangled distro with spinning 3D windows and bleeding edge apps. The latter presumes you've already thrown that computer away.

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"It felt kind of like having a pitbull terrier on my rear end."
-- meo (copyright(c)2008, all rights reserved)

6 replies since Aug. 01 2007,03:01

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