[GLLUG] [WLUG] Re:its back, Icons and tool bars changed size.

Karl Schuttler karl.schuttler at gmail.com
Sun Apr 19 12:50:26 EDT 2009


Sorry guys, wrong LUG.

On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Karl Schuttler
<karl.schuttler at gmail.com> wrote:
> Or you could just stick a $1 fan in there to blow on the card's heatsink
>
> On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Hans Kokx <skipmeister123 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Gordon,
>>
>> I've had this problem myself.  The fan on the video card quits turning, and
>> the video card overheats.  You'll get strange distortions, and perhaps
>> blocks of color. (In my case, I had blocks of yellow).  Unfortunately, once
>> you''ve gotten to this point, there's nothing you can do but replace the
>> card.  I'm not sure what Dell's warranty is like nowadays, but perhaps it's
>> under warranty, being only 18 months old?
>>
>> Hans
>>
>> On Apr 19, 2009, at 11:24 AM, gordonwebb1 at yahoo.com wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Jeff
>>>
>>> Thank you for taking the time to teach me.  I am overwhelmed with all
>>> their is to learn about computers.
>>>
>>> If the first blue "DELL" screen has fuzzy vertical lines the system will
>>> not boot up to the log in screen.  The screen just goes black.
>>>
>>> The worst thing I did was I forced the computer off by holding the button
>>> down when it was at about 95% of its long check last December.  I am
>>> confused did this hurt my operating system, the video card, or both?
>>>
>>> The bottom of the video card had a small fan that was NOT running.
>>>
>>> This Dell inspiron 530 is only about 18 months old no one has messed with
>>> the hardware.
>>>
>>> After the problem happened again I looked at the video card (its the card
>>> with a ribbon cable coming from the monitor's connector?)and the fans. Both
>>> 3" black fans were running. However the bottom of the video card had a small
>>> fan that was not running. The capacitors all looked new.  Cards and cables
>>> appeared to be pluged in correctly.
>>>
>>> I was able to run the memory test with memtest.  When it reache 100% after
>>> about 20 mins I hit esc to reboot.
>>>
>>> Should I replace the vidio card with the dead fan?
>>>
>>>
>>> Gordon Webb
>>>
>>> --- On Sat, 4/18/09, Jeff Hanson <jhansonxi at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> From: Jeff Hanson <jhansonxi at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [WLUG] Re:its back, Icons and tool bars changed size.
>>> To: "gordon webb" <gordonwebb1 at yahoo.com>
>>> Cc:
>>> linux-users at lugwash.org
>>> Date: Saturday, April 18, 2009, 9:23 PM
>>>
>>> On 4/17/09, gordon webb <gordonwebb1 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hello
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Previous post for this problem can be seen at:
>>>> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1101351
>>>
>>> Read it.
>>>
>>>> What happened to my start up, and the screen's display?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Wrong screen resolution.  If set manually it's in /etc/X11/xorg.conf
>>> but usually it's automatic.
>>>
>>>> I am using a Ubuntu 7:10 for an operating system.
>>>
>>> It's obsolete when Jaunty (9.04) is released in a week.  No more
>>> updates will be available!
>>>
>>>> The Icons on the desk top
>>>> are larger then they were. When I open the yahoo screen the
>>>> display and
>>>
>>> tool
>>>>
>>>> bars are larger then they were. Even by using ctrl+-
>>>> leaves the text looking
>>>> fuzzy.
>>>
>>> Screen resolution is determined by X.org (the graphics system) by
>>> communicating with the video card through the driver to find out what
>>> resolutions/frequencies it can handle.  It also communicates to the
>>> monitor (through the video driver and video card) using the "Display
>>> Data Channel" which is a communication channel that is a couple of
>>> wires inside the video cable:
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_Data_Channel
>>>
>>> It compares what the monitor can handle with what the card can handle
>>> and uses the best mode available.  If the driver is not communicating
>>> to the video card (wrong/broken driver), or the video card can't
>>> connect to the monitor DDC (bad cable for instance), or the monitor is
>>> lying about its
>>> capabilities (some do) then X.org can end up with a
>>> poor quality display.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> This started after loging on once in December, it was going through the
>>>> long
>>>> check. At about 95% I hit the escape key. Nothing seemed to change
>>>> so I pushed
>>>> the computers off button. On restarting the computer it
>>>> came up with a box
>>>> saying a graphics card was not found of un
>>>> recognizable. At that time the pre
>>>> login screens, wallpaper, photos and
>>>> other documents look normal.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Did it power itself off or did you hold the button down to force it
>>> off?  The latter is very naughty and will mess up most operating
>>> systems (Windows, OS X, Linux) depending on how the drive was
>>> formatted.
>>>
>>>> Then I went to the terminal and typed in code:
>>>>
>>>> sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
>>>>
>>>> At that time the above code did the trick.  Things
>>>
>>> worked fine.
>>>
>>> Good job!
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Now even after typing in the above code the screen's size is still
>>>> diffrent.
>>>> Also, when trying to turn the computer on boot up takes a longer time.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Sounds like hardware fault.  Check the cable and restart the system.
>>> Also check the video card.  Make sure it's all the way inserted into
>>> its slot and the fan is working (if it has one).  Some video cards
>>> require a separate power connection.  They will work without it but at
>>> slow speed/low resolution.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> So I went back to the post mentioned above to reread the responces.
>>>> When I
>>>> came to the responce by Therion "Do you see drivers LISTED in
>>>> that menu
>>>> though? If you do you should be able to click on them to
>>>> activate one.  I
>>>> activated "NVIDIA".  Some times the system still takes 2 or 3 trys to
>>>> boot
>>>> corectly when turning
>>>
>>> on the computer. The screens
>>>>
>>>> size is still diffrent.
>>>> When trying to change the screens resolution to
>>>> 1024 X 768 no resolutions
>>>> higher then 640 x 480 are advalible for
>>>> selection.
>>>
>>> Really sounds like a hardware problem if the system doesn't want to
>>> boot.  Check cables and fans.  Look for bad capacitors on the
>>> motherboard:
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague
>>>
>>> Test the memory with memtest.  If you hit ESC when the Grub boot menu
>>> prompt is shown at boot you can select it from the boot list.  Let it
>>> complete one complete pass.
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thank you for any sugestions on what to do or check next.
>>>
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>>
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>



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