Arch Linux

timm

Member

From: Wisconsin

Registered: 2004-02-25

Posts: 417

Odd display problems [solved]

I am running mythtv on arch, an nvidia GeForce 7600 GS video card, with a Panasonic Viera plasma TV as the display.  I've always had overscan problems (that I have not found a good answer for) but recently started having really strange video issues.

About a week ago, while running myth and without having upgraded or changed anything, I started getting lines of white or black garbage on the display, almost like the tops of lines of letters that are cut off.  They would appear here and there, and got worse as I moved from screen to screen.  Ultimately the real lines of text on the myth display would get distorted to the point where they were illegible.  When I dropped out to gnome, the dots were gone, but the screen resolution was off from where it should be.  Later on while in myth it started repainting the screen from corner to corner diagonally, almost like some kind of video wipe.

Finally dumping out to a console, the overscan was way worse than it had been before, although sometimes logging out and logging back in would bring it back.  Now it takes a reboot to get there.

After the problem started, I updated the system, reinstalled xorg, mythtv, gnome, tried running under awesome, pulled my old xorg.conf and tried running without, none of which helped at all.

It's difficult to really describe this stuff, but if anyone has any ideas of where to start trying to fix it, I'd appreciate hearing.

Last edited by timm (2010-08-21 11:24:02)

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: Odd display problems [solved]

I just have some general thoughts. Does it look correct if you connect it to a different monitor? (to find out if the TV / TV connection is the problem) Did you install something in your house that could affect the signal that is being transmitted through the wire? (I highly doubt it) Are you SURE you didn't install / update / change any settings before it stopped working?

The problem you described reminds me a little of the glitchy GTK problems I was having with my Radeon. My problem ended up being related to the open source driver and KMS. Is there another driver or video card you could try? Is your video card getting too hot?

timm

Member

From: Wisconsin

Registered: 2004-02-25

Posts: 417

Re: Odd display problems [solved]

I'll check with my spare monitor this weekend, and crack open the box.  There is a change I made that I didn't link to anything; about a two weeks before this started I had to replace the PSU as the old one died, I vented it differently so it isn't pulling any heat from the main box.  The existing fans should be enough, but it's a place to look.  I'll keep you posted.

timm

Member

From: Wisconsin

Registered: 2004-02-25

Posts: 417

Re: Odd display problems [solved]

It looks like you hit it on the head.  My air flow wasn't working as I had anticipated, and my video card was really hot when I opened it up.  I rearranged some things and I'll see what happens.   The delay in the problem from the change is what threw me, but with a heat issue that makes sense.  The problem isn't solved, so I think I may have fried the video card, I ordered another one and will see what that does.  At the same time, for now, I think the issue is solved.  Thanks.