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**THHHB** · Nov 07, 2009, 05:31 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

Time to check your graphic card's cooling system

**tmeehan** · Nov 07, 2009, 06:05 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

Have you tried to reproduce this using a LiveCD from an alternate distribution? You mentioned that previous distros didn't do this, so perhaps try one of them as that would offer you a "known good" state and eliminate hardware as the culprit.

If you have no video problems with a different distro, then it's probably a software memory leak -- check the files in /var/log for anything that corresponds to the time when your video goes on the fritz, particularly Xorg.conf, kern.log, kdm.log and syslog. If you find any diagnostic info, open a bug report at http://launchpad.net. If you don't find any diagnostic info, I'm unsure where to steer you.

If the problem persists with different distros, then it's likely a hardware issue. As the other response suggests, check the video cooling system.

**MoonRise** · Nov 07, 2009, 07:14 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

I had something similar at one time and it turned out to be a memory issue. Which if it is onboard, then you'd have to replace the graphics card. Hopefully it will be as easy as a cooling issue as THHHB stated.

**triumph50** · Nov 07, 2009, 09:00 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

Wow, thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated!

The card itself is running at 45 degrees on a consistent level. I had suspected this was the issue from the start, but since I never had the issues present themselves in Suse running KDE after disabling compiz at the time, I had assumed Compiz was at fault or, just a very poor graphic card trying to do more than what it could handle. Those suspicions were once again thwarted when I installed Ubuntu a couple years ago and ran Compiz without any issues (except of course poor animation at times, skipped frames...etc...which was a result of having the card set for high quality...not the best card mind you..lol..)

The live CD never had any of these issues and I really ran it pretty hard just to make sure I was not installing a possible distro that, after I finially got comfortable with it and started installing and adding this or that, it would need to be reinstalled or removed (similar to what happened to my Ubuntu installation after the latest upgrade)

When I noticed the problem, it seemed to occur after the installation of the Nvidia 185 driver. After I posted my question, I decided to "roll back" and simply remove the 185 driver completely and use what Kubuntu selected. So far, as of this writing, I have had no issues yet, but...I have only run the machine now for about a half hour under some load and about 1.5 hours in screensaver/plasma clock mode.

So..maybe that is/was the problem all along. The Nvidia 185 driver not working as expected..........

**triumph50** · Nov 07, 2009, 09:08 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

Originally posted by tmeehan

If you have no video problems with a different distro, then it's probably a software memory leak -- check the files in /var/log for anything that corresponds to the time when your video goes on the fritz, particularly Xorg.conf, kern.log, kdm.log and syslog. If you find any diagnostic info, open a bug report at http://launchpad.net. If you don't find any diagnostic info, I'm unsure where to steer you.

If the problem persists with different distros, then it's likely a hardware issue. As the other response suggests, check the video cooling system.

I went through a mountain of log file data within the Xorg.conf file, and found that the NV driver seems to be the one I should stick with. Apparently the 185 Nvidia driver for whatever reason is not correctly working for my Nvidia geforce 6200 card. I realize it is an old card, a crappy card at that, but...for Linux, it really seems to do just fine, as long as I can get a driver to play nice with it. I will check Nvidia's site as well and see if there is any corresponding issues pertaining to that card and a possible driver to enable Kwin again, as the default NV will not allow that to take place.

Again, many thanks for the help and advice!

**MoonRise** · Nov 07, 2009, 09:09 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

That is possible for a newer driver to cause issues such as running the card hotter than normal and also accessing memory wrong. If you have no issues with the older driver and are pleased with the performance from it, I would just leave it there.

**triumph50** · Nov 07, 2009, 09:12 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

Originally posted by MoonRise

That is possible for a newer driver to cause issues such as running the card hotter than normal and also accessing memory wrong. If you have no issues with the older driver and are pleased with the performance from it, I would just leave it there.

Is 45 too hot for a PCI card? Im not all that familiar with proper running temps on graphic cards.

I would like to at least enable some aspects of Kwin however (or even Compiz) due to the fact I kind of spoiled myself to a degree with just a few of the minor aspects of the enhancements Compiz or Kwin provide.

**GreyGeek** · Nov 07, 2009, 09:14 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

My old Gateway m675prr with an ATI Radeon ran between 42 and 47 degrees, as the fan cycled on and off.

**triumph50** · Nov 07, 2009, 09:18 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

Originally posted by GreyGeek

My old Gateway m675prr with an ATI Radeon ran between 42 and 47 degrees, as the fan cycled on and off.

Interesting....this Nvidia runs a pretty constant 45 as I used the Nvidia tool to check it quite frequently before I reverted to the NV driver. I used to run ATI in this very computer but grew pretty tired of the driver support and wonky issues that transpired with those very drivers. I wound up pulling that card and installing this Nvidia card which now seems to run pretty flawless using the NV driver.

**MoonRise** · Nov 08, 2009, 06:14 AM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

not too sure as I don't track that. It still could be bad memory more than anything in my experiences.

**skunk** · Nov 08, 2009, 07:58 AM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

According to the documentation
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree8...ppendix-a.html
the GeForce 6200 SHOULD be supported

**Detonate** · Nov 08, 2009, 08:49 AM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

I am running a Geforce 6200 with the 185 driver and I have no issues. Runs Kwin or Compiz just fine.

**MoonRise** · Nov 08, 2009, 09:44 AM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

Card issues then. Memory? Overheating (and not reporting temp correctly)? All possibilities which really says time to replace, unfortunately. It happens.

**GreyGeek** · Nov 08, 2009, 02:45 PM

Re: Display issues in KDE Must see to believe

I''ll wager it is a card issue. NVidia is notorious for problems with their 7x,8x and 9x series, and some suggest their problems started more than two years ago with the 6x series. Last I heard they are defendants in a $200M lawsuit brought by the OEMs that used their chips.

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