By the way, I've just had a shufti through Synaptic and xorg is still included, so, given that, would configuring the graphics card be a sensible option? (Choosing i915 as the driver, since it is.) The instructions I've got are for Breezy Badger so I guess some things have changed a bit since then.
Bev.
On 15/11/12 13:43, Bev Nicolson wrote:
By the way, I've just had a shufti through Synaptic and xorg is still included, so, given that, would configuring the graphics card be a sensible option? (Choosing i915 as the driver, since it is.) The instructions I've got are for Breezy Badger so I guess some things have changed a bit since then.
Hi, I've taken the liberty of posting the video of the symptoms on twitvid - here: http://twitvid.com/CM1JE
Bev if this is not OK with you, please let me know and I'll take it down ASAP, and I'll apologise!
To me this looks like the graphics card is trying to drive the monitor at a higher frequency than the monitor can handle, though I guess it could also be caused by a faulty cable, or dodgy connection - e.g. bent pin or vga cable not all the way into the socket.
What do other people think?
I didn't think that changing the XOrg config would do anything, but on further reading it seems it might. This thread https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xorg/+question/193748 says "If the GUI system-settings -> display doesn't work you need xrandr to get the values and adjust xorg.conf. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution#Adding_undetected_resolutions https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Config/Resolution#Adding_undetected_resolutions " So I suggest using the Display app to force the resolution AND FREQUENCY to the settings you want. If that doesn't work, try xrandr and altering xorg config files.
Hope that helps.
Steve
To me looks more like broken video graphics card than incorrect video timings. Horizontal scrolling is very unusual and the corrupt pixels point at the GPU memory's being corrupt. Can you replace the graphics card? Failing that try some simpler modes like 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768, all at 60Hz.
Good luck! Tim.
I've now got xrandr installed and can alter the screen resolution and the Hz (choice of 75Hz, 60Hz or auto. Seems odd this can't be done in Display as used to be the case for 11.04 but there we are.) It's already on 60Hz, I find. If this doesn't work, I think it's new graphics card time. Recommendations? (Not spending £400 on one if that is the case though. Nearer £40. Ideally £30.)
Bev.
On 16 November 2012 19:13, Bev Nicolson lumos60@gmail.com wrote:
I've now got xrandr installed and can alter the screen resolution and the Hz (choice of 75Hz, 60Hz or auto. Seems odd this can't be done in Display as used to be the case for 11.04 but there we are.) It's already on 60Hz, I find. If this doesn't work, I think it's new graphics card time. Recommendations? (Not spending £400 on one if that is the case though. Nearer £40. Ideally £30.)
Can you borrow a graphics card to eliminate in case it's not the problem? That withstanding it does look like a graphics memory issue I'm pretty sure a new card will fix your problem.
Cheers, BJ
On 16/11/12 19:13, Bev Nicolson wrote:
I've now got xrandr installed and can alter the screen resolution and the Hz (choice of 75Hz, 60Hz or auto. Seems odd this can't be done in Display as used to be the case for 11.04 but there we are.) It's already on 60Hz, I find. If this doesn't work, I think it's new graphics card time. Recommendations? (Not spending £400 on one if that is the case though. Nearer £40. Ideally £30.)
Bev.
Hi,
I'd try and borrow a card if you can, however, if someone can lend you a card, then maybe they could flog you that card. Anyway, if you need to buy one, I'd suggest you get the something by the same chip manufacturer, and of a similar spec to what you currently have - e.g. if you currently have an ATI card with X megs of memory, get another with a similar amount of memory. Unless you have a fancy new expensive machine, there is no need to buy a fancy new expensive graphics card. If you replace the graphics card with a similar one, it's more likely to install and work with minimal configuration on your system than a completely different one.
I'd have thought you'd be able to buy an average NEW card for under £40 having looked on ebay, and you may well be able to pick one up for a pittance.
What you will have to be sure of though is that you make sure you get the right type of graphics card. A really really old machine would have a PCI graphics card. A newer one would have PCI-Express. There may be a newer standard - I don't know - I'm not up-to-date on these things I'm afraid.
Good luck!
Steve
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Bev Nicolson -
John Woodard -
steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk -
Tim Green