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Need help resurrecting video.
http://forums.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18474		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  jmckeown2 [ Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Need help resurrecting video.
My video card seems to have died. There's no display on the TV (DVI) X fails to start with "No screen detected" and a reboot goes Beeeeeeeeeep-beep-beep which seems to be the BIOS code for "video error" The apparently dead card is a "eVGA" branded GeForce 6600.

From a remote PC Mythweb looks fine, and ssh works fine. So I'm thinking the box is overall OK as a headless backend.

So how do I fix this?

If I gent a more modern GeForce-based card, can I just drop it in, or do I need go through nvidia-setup again?

I'm thinking of This card IF they have it is stock.

help!![/b]
Author:  tjc [ Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need help resurrecting video.
jmckeown2 wrote:
If I gent a more modern GeForce-based card, can I just drop it in, or do I need go through nvidia-setup again?

Since both cards would use the most recent 173.14.09 version of the driver you should just be able to drop it in. Anything else I can think of would be limited by your display device rather than the card so it should just work.
Author:  manicmike [ Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Need help resurrecting video.
Sounds like you've done well so far.

Buy the card and see what happens is what I'd do. Can't see it say anywhere that it's fanless, though. I wouldn't buy a graphics card with a fan: One more thing to go wrong and one more thing to make noise.

Mike
Author:  warchildx [ Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:24 pm ]
Post subject: 
manicmike wrote:
I wouldn't buy a graphics card with a fan: One more thing to go wrong and one more thing to make noise.


I generally agree on this point, but for frontend's only. When configuring machine as a backend, the tuner cards (that will be sitting right next to the video card) get very hot. Thus...

For super quiet = fanless
If the case is going to be roasting marshmallows inside = get a GOOD fan (not the cheapo ones that come on some video cards).

OR, if space allows:
Get a "Slot Exhaust Fan" they take up 1 or 2 slots in the back of the case, but then you can have a fanless video card, and instead use the cheapo exhaust fan for cooling so you dont burn anything up.

http://www.wiredzone.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=32000935 (Good, adjustable)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000110573+4024+1372526581&name=PCI+Slot+Case+Cooler(Cheaper -- Under 10 bucks)
Author:  jmckeown2 [ Tue Jul 08, 2008 2:07 pm ]
Post subject: 
OK, So I got the card referenced in the first post. It's a good news/bad news kinda situation.

Bad news: When I put the card in and booted KM; the box locked hard; black screen; can't switch to alt terminals (via Ctrl-Alt-Fx) Trying to ssh in gives "No route to host" even the VFD lost the heartbeat. -- You get the picture; it's an electric doorstop;

Here's the good news, I booted from an Ubuntu disk, and all seems well. It came up with the stock nv driver. I couldn't get the nvidia driver to run from the live cd, but I'm guessing there's a driver issue here.

tjc, you mention 173.14.09. That's not in R5F27 is it? Is it in R5.5? I'm wondering if the newer driver is the answer here.
Author:  tjc [ Tue Jul 08, 2008 6:03 pm ]
Post subject: 
jmckeown2 wrote:
tjc, you mention 173.14.09. That's not in R5F27 is it? Is it in R5.5? I'm wondering if the newer driver is the answer here.

Yes. That is in R5.5.

Bring the machine up with the R5.5 disk in rescue mode. chroot, and mount /myth, make a backup, and you should be able to auto upgrade.
Author:  jmckeown2 [ Tue Jul 08, 2008 6:54 pm ]
Post subject: 
That sounds like the plan then, I guess I'll make time this weekend.

I'm pretty sure I can pull the card and get it running headless, if so I can do the upgrade prep via ssh.
Author:  tjc [ Tue Jul 08, 2008 7:13 pm ]
Post subject: 
Can you boot it to single user mode with the card in place? That'd be even easier. Given that you should be able to get through it all in about an hour.
Author:  jmckeown2 [ Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:40 pm ]
Post subject: 
tjc wrote:
Can you boot it to single user mode with the card in place? That'd be even easier.

I can, get to single user, and normally I'd agree, but it's not entirely usable for me because my TV (Sony KV36HS510) has a wicked amount of overscan. I can't even see the bottom line in text mode, which means single user mode activities are usually limited to figuring out why I can only use single-user mode.

I'm working on getting the wife to approve a new TV; but that's a WHOLE other discussion....
Author:  tjc [ Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:52 pm ]
Post subject: 
Well you shouldn't need to see all that much to run one backup command. ;-) On the other hand it would suck a lot if you need to do more elaborate prep... ;-)
Author:  jmckeown2 [ Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:53 pm ]
Post subject: 
OK, update time:
In trying to get a decent backup for an upgrade; all sorts of weird sh** started going on. I'd lose the keyboard; lock-up; get BIOS checksum errors; get IO errors... -- You've heard the term "ghost in the machine." I had a poltergeist in the machine. "headless mode" stopped working and even single user mode became a long shot. R5F27 and R5.5 both booted and locked-up, Ubuntu live CD's did better but also locked up eventually.

I did finally get a backup by mounting the drive in another PC, and booting into single-user mode.

I'm realizing that the bad video card was not the problem, but a SYMPTOM of the problem. I remembered I previous problem I mentioned in this thread. My chipset fan konked-out and was not discovered for some months. I replaced the fan with a fanless heatsink. I figure I probably should have used some thermal paste when I mounted that heatsink; but the original didn't seem to have any, so it never occurred to me. (maybe it burned away???)

Given that the motherboard is probably flaky, I figured the best option for my family's beloved mythbox was euthanasia. This also gives me a chance to implement several other possible-but-annoying-to-implement changes.
  1. Replace PATA Boot drive w/ SATA
  2. new boot drive is smaller than previous 300Gb->250Gb
  3. hostname change
  4. re-do all my digital channels because *^&@ing comcast keeps moving them.
  5. remove customizations of questionable value

The only thing I can't stand to lose is is mythvideo, The only table of concern there is videometadata. So I spent some money, did the hardware equivalant of a Dr. Frankenstein, did a 5.5 "Auto Install", mounted some drives, restored videmetadata and I'm back in business...

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-M57SLIS4
CPU: Athlon X2 4400+
RAM: 2GB DDR800
SATA1: 250GB / (boot disk)
SATA2: 500GB /myth/video2
SATA3: 300GB /myth/video (*)
SATA4: 500GB /myth/tv (*)
Analog tuners: 2x PVR-150s incl 1 MCE version w/remote(*)
Digital Tuners: HDHomerun(*)
Case: Thermaltake Bach w/iMon VFD(*)
(* Sallvaged from old box)

Oh I also have two Removable Drive Bays. One for the boot disk, One Empty; attached to SATA5. When I need to backup my video partitions, I can just drop in a drive, and go.

As you can see I use mythvideo a lot; I now have two drives dedicated to to it; a nearly full 300 GB, and a new 500GB with about 250Gb copied from the old system's boot drive. Crazy huh?
Author:  tjc [ Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:30 pm ]
Post subject: 
Sorry, to hear your hardware woes, glad to hear your back in order.

I'm actually quite thrilled with my new removable backup drive too, eSATA rocks.

BTW - Heatsinks *ALWAYS* need some kind of TIM. Always, ALWAYS, A_L_W_A_Y_S. Good goop makes a huge difference in performance too. We're talking the cooling difference between putting the ices cubes in your drink and and in another glass next to your drink. Not only that but it's relatively cheap.
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