Some key combinations cause reboot and kill monitor display

[Ric Moore]

On Wed, 2008-03-12 at 13:39 -0600, Joseph Thames wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have noticed that sometimes my hand slips in typing an a key
> combination causes the system to immediately reboot. Yesterday,
> however, I inadvertently pressed a notebook binder on the keys, and it
> rebooted, like before, but this time when it booted back up, all that
> would display on the monitor was two lines of weird characters on the
> top of the screen. I first thought that I had blown the monitor. but
> this was not the case. I was able to use the rescue disk to tar up my
> recent work and ftp it to my web-hosting site. 
> 
> I tried using my installation DVD to update my installation. But this
> didn't cure the problem. I suspect that I somehow corrupted some X11
> code, and this is what is causing the display failure.
> 
> Does anyone know what might be causing this display behavior, and how
> I might cure it? I don't want to have to do a full re-installation if
> I can help it.

You might check your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. If it looks screwed up,
hopefully you'll have something like a xorg.conf~ file to copy back over
it. Or, rename xorg.conf to something like org.xorg.conf to force a
re-setup. Otherwise, you have something really busted. :) 

First, I'd try yum update xorg* and hopefully there will be enough
updates to magically fix the problem. 

You may wish to try rpm -qa |grep xorg* to see what you have installed
and reinstall those you think may be damaged from the install DVD. You
may have to rpm --force them. :(  Strange problem! I wish I knew more in
order to help you better. Ric
 
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