[RESOLVED] A long, strange FC3 problem (an nVidia / Radeon problem)

[Summer Brooks]

I say resolved, because the problem is definitely not solved, but
my issues with FC3 as originally posted here a little over a week
ago are no longer an issue.

Initially, after an upgrade from RH9 to FC3, my monitor would lock 
up during the switch to the login panel from boot messages, and the
desktop would lock up during normal use.   The login panel freeze up 
could be resolved by unplugging the monitor -- when plugged back in, 
the Fedora login screen would be there, and normal login procedures 
could be attempted.

The lockups during normal use could only be resolved by hard booting
the machine, and for the most part seemed to happen whenever I
was using a web-based form (blog interface, Yahoo Mail interface, etc).

I initially erroneously thought this had something to do with my
adding packages to be able to use exmh, because the behavior didn't
assert itself until after I'd added those packages, suffered a crash
and rebooted.

Turns out the problem might be video card related.

Something about Xorg or FC3 did not want to play nice with my 19"
Viewsonic VX900-2 LCD monitor and the nVidia GeForce 440 MX card, 
which was in the AGP slot.  A replacement ATI Radeon 9200SE AGP 
card exhibited the same behavior, in both situations listed above. 

A replacement Radeon 9200SE PCI card did not exhibit the usage 
behavior during 5 days of consistent use, and attempts to do the 
same things that had locked up the system previously did not produce 
repeat behavior.  The login panel lockup did happen with the Radeon 
PCI card, but I have fixed that problem... with a DVI cable.

I'd been using the SVGA cable under RH9, and a little while ago, 
I shut down the system to switch it out and use the DVI connector 
instead. 

Imagine my surprise when the system switched from text-based boot
messages to the login panel without a hitch.

So this is either an AGP problem, or a problem with signals being
used over the SVGA cable.  I honestly no longer care not, because my
system works now... even the 200Gb Seagate USB/Firewire drive worked
first time out  :)   I may at some point get curious enough to 
plug the nVidia back in and use the DVI cable to see if the problem
still pops up, but that's unlikely.

Thanks for the suggestions while I was debugging this issue... and
I hope someone takes a deeper look at what's going on here.  It's
definitely wacky.


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Summer Brooks, WildHorse.com 		I will choose a Path that's clear 
brooksj at wildhorse dot com		I will choose Free Will