I just replaced Win98 with Fedora Core 4 on a friends' computer: AMD 550, 128MB RAM. Now, he can work for a limited amount of time (between 20-150 minutes), then the computer gets stuck. Not even the mouse works. He can, however, switch to a console with CTR-ALT-F1.
When restarted, there is no graphical mode, only console. If he lets the computer sit for a few hours, he can boot up a graphical screen, but after some time the problem reoccurs. Nothing in the computer (open case) seems unusually hot, which was my first thought.
Any ideas on where to look? Thank you.
Dotan Cohen http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/biography/12/aaliyah.php Aaliyah Song Lyrics and Biography .
On Wed, 2005-11-30 at 15:19 +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:
I just replaced Win98 with Fedora Core 4 on a friends' computer: AMD 550, 128MB RAM. Now, he can work for a limited amount of time (between 20-150 minutes), then the computer gets stuck. Not even the mouse works. He can, however, switch to a console with CTR-ALT-F1.
When restarted, there is no graphical mode, only console. If he lets the computer sit for a few hours, he can boot up a graphical screen, but after some time the problem reoccurs. Nothing in the computer (open case) seems unusually hot, which was my first thought.
Any ideas on where to look? Thank you.
Sounds like a heat issue. May be the gpu overheating. It works much less when in text mode. Definitely whatever it is, it affects the video cards ability to process graphics. The time factor certainly indicates heat.
That old a system may have inadequate heat sinks/cooling fans and/or inadequate case ventilation. You said the case is open, but have you tried putting a portable fan where it directs air flow across the video card? Have you tried a different video card? Is the interior of the case clean? completely blown out with air? Is there a fan on the video card? Is it working? Is there a fan on the system chip? Is it working? (This is not likely the issue but worth checking anyway.)
Dotan Cohen http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/biography/12/aaliyah.php Aaliyah Song Lyrics and Biography .
On 12/1/05, Jeff Vian jvian10@charter.net wrote:
On Wed, 2005-11-30 at 15:19 +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:
I just replaced Win98 with Fedora Core 4 on a friends' computer: AMD 550, 128MB RAM. Now, he can work for a limited amount of time (between 20-150 minutes), then the computer gets stuck. Not even the mouse works. He can, however, switch to a console with CTR-ALT-F1.
When restarted, there is no graphical mode, only console. If he lets the computer sit for a few hours, he can boot up a graphical screen, but after some time the problem reoccurs. Nothing in the computer (open case) seems unusually hot, which was my first thought.
Any ideas on where to look? Thank you.
Sounds like a heat issue. May be the gpu overheating. It works much less when in text mode. Definitely whatever it is, it affects the video cards ability to process graphics. The time factor certainly indicates heat.
That old a system may have inadequate heat sinks/cooling fans and/or inadequate case ventilation. You said the case is open, but have you tried putting a portable fan where it directs air flow across the video card? Have you tried a different video card? Is the interior of the case clean? completely blown out with air? Is there a fan on the video card? Is it working? Is there a fan on the system chip? Is it working? (This is not likely the issue but worth checking anyway.)
I also thought that it was a hardware problem, however the machine ran win98 fine. The inside of the case is free of dust, if not perfectly clean. The video card has no fan (never did) but it does not get too hot, by the finger test (just a little warm). It is a 32 MB AGP Nvida unit. And the CPU fan works fine, as does the power supply fan. Neither of them seem unusually hot.
Also, there was no EE entries in the X log file, which would suggest a problem in that area. However, I did notice that there is no swap space. cat /proc/swap is blank. I DID specify a swap partition, but there is no swap! Could this be a cause?
Dotan Cohen http://technology-sleuth.com/long_answer/what_is_a_cellphone.html
I must admit I'm just a newb, but I think a fresh "clean" install of *Fedora Core 3 or 2 *would be better instead of installing core 4. I heard somewhere in the fedora website that fedora was gently optimized for the pentium processor, but not completely optimized to allow for better compatibility with other processors though. It must be an OS problem because it runs other operating system such as win98 smoothly. Try reading the boot screen (use interactive boot to execute specific components) and look if anything is amiss i.e. did not detect nvidia hardware. I think it could also be the GPU, its drivers may have not been updated for linux. Try downloading the latest drivers for nvidia or following http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_4_installation_notes.html on how to get nvidia to work with your system.
Goodluck!
On 12/1/05, Dotan Cohen dotancohen@gmail.com wrote:
On 12/1/05, Jeff Vian jvian10@charter.net wrote:
On Wed, 2005-11-30 at 15:19 +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:
I just replaced Win98 with Fedora Core 4 on a friends' computer: AMD 550, 128MB RAM. Now, he can work for a limited amount of time (between 20-150 minutes), then the computer gets stuck. Not even the mouse works. He can, however, switch to a console with CTR-ALT-F1.
When restarted, there is no graphical mode, only console. If he lets the computer sit for a few hours, he can boot up a graphical screen, but after some time the problem reoccurs. Nothing in the computer (open case) seems unusually hot, which was my first thought.
Any ideas on where to look? Thank you.
Sounds like a heat issue. May be the gpu overheating. It works much less when in text mode. Definitely whatever it is, it affects the video cards ability to process graphics. The time factor certainly indicates heat.
That old a system may have inadequate heat sinks/cooling fans and/or inadequate case ventilation. You said the case is open, but have you tried putting a portable fan where it directs air flow across the video card? Have you tried a different video card? Is the interior of the case clean? completely blown out with air? Is there a fan on the video card? Is it working? Is there a fan on the system chip? Is it working? (This is not likely the issue but worth checking anyway.)
I also thought that it was a hardware problem, however the machine ran win98 fine. The inside of the case is free of dust, if not perfectly clean. The video card has no fan (never did) but it does not get too hot, by the finger test (just a little warm). It is a 32 MB AGP Nvida unit. And the CPU fan works fine, as does the power supply fan. Neither of them seem unusually hot.
Also, there was no EE entries in the X log file, which would suggest a problem in that area. However, I did notice that there is no swap space. cat /proc/swap is blank. I DID specify a swap partition, but there is no swap! Could this be a cause?
Dotan Cohen http://technology-sleuth.com/long_answer/what_is_a_cellphone.html
-- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@redhat.com To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
On 12/1/05, Jose Achmad Palala deterium73@gmail.com wrote:
I must admit I'm just a newb, but I think a fresh "clean" install of Fedora Core 3 or 2 would be better instead of installing core 4. I heard somewhere in the fedora website that fedora was gently optimized for the pentium processor, but not completely optimized to allow for better compatibility with other processors though. It must be an OS problem because it runs other operating system such as win98 smoothly. Try reading the boot screen (use interactive boot to execute specific components) and look if anything is amiss i.e. did not detect nvidia hardware. I think it could also be the GPU, its drivers may have not been updated for linux. Try downloading the latest drivers for nvidia or following http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_4_installation_notes.html on how to get nvidia to work with your system.
Goodluck!
On 12/1/05, Dotan Cohen dotancohen@gmail.com wrote:
On 12/1/05, Jeff Vian jvian10@charter.net wrote:
On Wed, 2005-11-30 at 15:19 +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:
I just replaced Win98 with Fedora Core 4 on a friends' computer: AMD 550, 128MB RAM. Now, he can work for a limited amount of time (between 20-150 minutes), then the computer gets stuck. Not even the mouse works. He can, however, switch to a console with CTR-ALT-F1.
When restarted, there is no graphical mode, only console. If he lets the computer sit for a few hours, he can boot up a graphical screen, but after some time the problem reoccurs. Nothing in the computer (open case) seems unusually hot, which was my first thought.
Any ideas on where to look? Thank you.
Sounds like a heat issue. May be the gpu overheating. It works much less when in text mode. Definitely whatever it is, it affects the video cards ability to process graphics. The time factor certainly indicates heat.
That old a system may have inadequate heat sinks/cooling fans and/or inadequate case ventilation. You said the case is open, but have you tried putting a portable fan where it directs air flow across the video card? Have you tried a different video card? Is the interior of the case clean? completely blown out with air? Is there a fan on the video card? Is it working? Is there a fan on the system chip? Is it working? (This is not likely the issue but worth checking anyway.)
I also thought that it was a hardware problem, however the machine ran win98 fine. The inside of the case is free of dust, if not perfectly clean. The video card has no fan (never did) but it does not get too hot, by the finger test (just a little warm). It is a 32 MB AGP Nvida unit. And the CPU fan works fine, as does the power supply fan. Neither of them seem unusually hot.
Also, there was no EE entries in the X log file, which would suggest a problem in that area. However, I did notice that there is no swap space. cat /proc/swap is blank. I DID specify a swap partition, but there is no swap! Could this be a cause?
Dotan Cohen
You might want look into the powersave settings. There is a good chance that the bios and hardware of your friend's computer is not up to the expectations of the 2.6 series kernel.
On 12/2/05, Jose Achmad Palala deterium73@gmail.com wrote:
I must admit I'm just a newb, but I think a fresh "clean" install of Fedora Core 3 or 2 would be better instead of installing core 4. I heard somewhere in the fedora website that fedora was gently optimized for the pentium processor, but not completely optimized to allow for better compatibility with other processors though. It must be an OS problem because it runs other operating system such as win98 smoothly. Try reading the boot screen (use interactive boot to execute specific components) and look if anything is amiss i.e. did not detect nvidia hardware. I think it could also be the GPU, its drivers may have not been updated for linux. Try downloading the latest drivers for nvidia or following http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_4_installation_notes.html on how to get nvidia to work with your system.
Goodluck!
I did look at the boot screen during startup, the only thing thing that failed was the internet connection, not suprising considering the fact that the cable was not plugged in! I think that you are right and I will switch distros. I should have researched that first...
Dotan Cohen http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/biography/117/chicago.php Chicago Song Lyrics and Biography
Jose Achmad Palala wrote:
I must admit I'm just a newb, but I think a fresh "clean" install of *Fedora Core 3 or 2 *would be better instead of installing core 4. I heard somewhere in the fedora website that fedora was gently optimized for the pentium processor, but not completely optimized to allow for better compatibility with other processors though.
Actually, most of the code is compiled to be *compatible* with anything from a 386 on up, since using the features of more recent processors either doesn't provide a measurable performance boost, or the features aren't available on all recent processors.
Some packages, such as the kernel and glibc, can make use of more recent features. In this case, Fedora usually provides one ("i586") RPM compiled explicitly for Pentium and compatible processors (e.g. the AMD K6), and one ("i686") RPM compiled for the Pentium Pro, Athlon and other compatible processors (e.g. the Pentium 4).
It's *tuned* (alignment, etc.) for the Pentium 4 these days, since there are so many of them. This doesn't seem to hurt performance of other recent processors, and certainly doesn't hurt compatibility.
See, for example, http://diary.codemonkey.org.uk/index.php?month=12&year=2004#20041204
Of course, this all assumes we're talking 32-bit Intel compatible processors.
It must be an OS problem because it runs other operating system such as win98 smoothly.
It ain't necessarily so. Memory problems (for example) are notoriously intermittent, and Win98 uses memory very differently to Linux.
Personally, I'd advise the Original Poster to run memtest86 for several hours (at least), and try swapping out the graphics card if he has a spare one anywhere.
I'd note that graphics cards can go wrong without getting especially hot. I've got an old PCI S3 Virge which runs fine in text or VESA modes, but hangs the computer reliably whenever the OS tries to use acceleration. It's done that on four or five OSes for six years now... (And it's been remarkably useful as an otherwise well-behaved emergency spare over the years, which is why I keep it).
What sort of Nvidia AGP graphics card is it? TNT? GeForce? (The chip revision number would be interesting...)
I notice Dotan said:
However, I did notice that there is no swap space. cat /proc/swap is blank. I DID specify a swap partition, but there is no swap! Could this be a cause?
It's possible, I suppose. Can't help on a machine with that little memory.
Is the swap listed in /etc/fstab?
What happens if you run /sbin/swapon -a as root?
Hope this helps,
James.
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Dotan Cohen -
James Wilkinson -
Jeff Vian -
Jose Achmad Palala -
Kam Leo