X11 doesn't seem to like my harddrive

chao06 · 2009-10-20 04:47:20

I had this issue on an instillation of Arch and Ubuntu.

Here's the video I took of it when it did this in Ubuntu, but it's the exact same thing in Arch. When I run "startx" my monitor freaks out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwhdJsFzAQU

It was on the same harddrive (Toshiba MK6034GAX), on the same computer (Dell Inspiron 6000).
I also have an install of Ubuntu on a different harddrive that on the same computer boots Gnome in Ubuntu no problem, so the only variable that could be causing the problem is the harddrive.

Here's the harddrive specs for the Toshiba HDD
http://sdd.toshiba.com/techdocs/MK6034G … -RevA0.pdf
And here's for my other HDD (Seagate ST960822A) just for reference
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/man … 400_pm.pdf

Does anyone have any idea, hypothesis, experience, anything that might help?
Thanks,
David

Trent · 2009-10-20 06:30:19

My gut instinct says it isn't exactly a hardware problem, but I could be wrong. Just to be clear, you installed Ubuntu and experienced this strange behavior, then wiped the drive and installed Arch, and had the same thing happen?

What version of Ubuntu was this? Is it the exact same version on the working drive as on the defective one?

chao06 · 2009-10-20 06:57:01

Yeah, I installed Ubuntu on the drive freshly partitioned, and later wiped the harddrive and installed Arch.

And both installs of Ubuntu are 9.04.

I suspect that it's less a hardware problem than some weird interaction between some feature in the harddrive and xorg or between the harddrive and my video card.
If it were an actual problem, then I don't think the effect would be so specific.

chao06 · 2009-10-20 07:46:05

I'll try a more thorough wipe of the harddrive using dd, then see what happens on a fresh install...

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-20 04:47:20

X11 doesn't seem to like my harddrive

#2 2009-10-20 06:30:19

Re: X11 doesn't seem to like my harddrive

#3 2009-10-20 06:57:01

Re: X11 doesn't seem to like my harddrive

#4 2009-10-20 07:46:05

Re: X11 doesn't seem to like my harddrive

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