Posted this a while ago. Problem still unsolved. Help.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Help: any known oddities Tyan dual + ATI?
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 1999 23:26:48 +0000
From: Sandy Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Brand new system:
Tyan Thunder 2 ATX, model s1696dlua with SCSI & sound
Dual Celeron 466, socket type on MSI (Microstar) adapter boards
ATI 2 meg Mach 64 PCI video
Dlink 10/100 PCI and SMC 10 ISA net cards.
SCSI 50-pin bus has CD, Exabyte tape, 1.7 gig hard drive.
IDE has 3.2 hard drive.
It passes POST. BIOS reports correct RAM, two CPUs and all SCSI
devices.
Symptoms:
Dealer assembled it, tried SUSE 6.1 install, & reports video
misbehaviour from SUSE yast utility. Half of screen, randomly top
or bottom, disappears in mid-flight. Changing to another PCI video
card didn't help.
Anyone recognise these symptoms?
I've not tried it myself yet; SCSI disk (4 gig ultra) that I want to
install on arrives tomorrow.
BIOS has quite a few VGA-related options.
I can switch distributions, try installing without yast, or use a mono
hercules-type video card if necessary, but would rather not.
Suggestions?
-------------- end of original post ------------
I've now tried SuSE 6.1, 6.2, & 5.x, Redhat 6.0 & 5.x. All give the
same symptoms, with minor variations.
I tried all suggestions received as responses to previous post, e.g.
removing net card that might have IRQ conflict with video. Thanks.
Several different PCI VGA cards, (ATI Mach 64s that work fine in other
systems, including some tested in another Linux box). Also an ISA
monchrome card, Hercules clone.
Making my own boot disk, 2.0.38 kernel with MTRR patch, did not help.
For all the above: Cursor jumps around randomly during kernel boot
sequence, parts of screen (rectangles, often apparently chunks of
lines, usually near cursor) go blank and/or change colour. Usually it
hangs sometime during this process, most often just after the line about
"checking POSIX compliance".
If it makes it through boot without hanging, behaviour continues during either SuSE or
RedHat
install process.
Reported bogomips are ludicruosly low. 3.8 or so. Linux reports CPU
speed as 46614614 MHz or some such; 466 would be right.
BIOS is latest downloadable, 1.18 version.
Both the BIOS and Linux can see the SCSI hard drive and the IDE CDROM.
I know the BIOS sees the Exabyte tape backup; I haven't noticed
whether Linux does.
BIOS reports various devices using IRQs, even after I've disabled
them in BIOS setup screens: USB and PS/2 mouse. Reported IRQs
indicate they might conflict with SCSI controller.
Fiddling with various BIOS video-related setup items -- use IRQ for PCI
video, pallette snooping, USWC on frame buffer, ... -- makes no
difference. I haven't tried all combinations, but I have tried every
option one-at-a-time in sequence.
NT and FreeBSD install disks come up fine with no video problem.
I haven't completed either install; don't want NT and don't have
FreeBSD CDs.
As I write, a test install of 98 is going well, though slowly. No
video misbehaviour or crashes, but obviously /much/ slower than my
K6-450 and IDE 98 box.
I'll try Solaris x86 this weekend. If I can't get Linux up, that would be my next
choice.
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