[PLUG] Weird Video Failure

King Beowulf kingbeowulf at gmail.com
Sat Apr 13 03:47:18 UTC 2013


On 04/11/2013 11:02 AM, Richard C. Steffens wrote:
> ------snip-------
> 
> When I look at the XServer Display Configuration it shows the digital 
> screen is off. Normally it's on. The configuration is set to Twin View. 
> Normally that's set to Separate X Screen.
> 
> When I click on the right hand monitor (in the tool) the resolution 
> shows as off. If I change that to 1680 x 1050 and click Apply, nothing 
> happens. This is what's making me think the card is failing, or at least 
> part of it has failed.
> 
> Any recommendations?
> 
> Assuming the card has failed, any recommendations on a better nVidia card?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> BTW, I set the auto save feature of LibreOffice to 1 minute, and 
> recovered most of the work I was doing.
> 
You would get either NO display or a garbled/distorted etc display if
your card is failing.  Since X comes up, the card is probably fine
(unless you just lost the DVI port...). Sounds like you are the victim
of a Ubuntu drive-by update.  If using proprietary Nvidia drivers, this
can be an issue.  What can happen is that the Nvidia kernel driver
doesn't load (depends on kernel version) so Ubuntu switched to nouveau
and your monitor autodetection is all screwy.

I would update the Nvidia driver, reboot, then reset the settings.

Using the Nvidia X server Settings tool, "X Server Display
Configuration" - "Advanced" button, see if you can set up the monitors
like you had before (run it via sudo or as root).  Then save the
settings to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/xorg.conf

Remember to pay attention to the following entries:

Position
Viewport Out
Panning

next select the monitors on at a time, and see which one is
[x] make this the primary display for the X screen.

I also recommend using Twinview over separate X screens as it makes
setup easier.

I use a 24" LCD 1920x1080 as primary and a 17" Dell Trinitron as a
secondary via twinview.  Autodetection tends to make things jump around
so I built and saved a full features xorg.conf and now everything stays
where I put 'em!

-Ed



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