The Butt Ugly Weblog

I feel your pain. I wish I could offer words of advice or encouragement to make you feel better but unfortunately, there are none. Atleast it was your own system. I have told my friends and family not to mention to anyone that I know anything about computers because they always ask for me to install hardware. Inevitably something goes wrong and the first thing the say is "I thought you said you knew what you were doing." They act like it is not my fault that they have an 8 year old computer that was the first computer ever to have USB and expect a brand new scanner to work flawlessly on it with Windows ME. I tried installing an ATI video card in a friends system for him and we had nothing but problems. Finally traded it in for and Nvidia and have not had a problem since. I have heard good things about ATI but lately I have heard just as many bad ones as well.

--JPS, 14-Oct-2005

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From what I've heard, Radeon cards are notoriously bad for not working well under Linux, especially when it comes to 3D acceleration. In that field, NVidia is way ahead. I do feel your pain though, having just spent a long evening trying to install, actually not hardware but D-Link's Wireless ADSL Modem (note: avoid this product, the configuration is really really awful) and having my head bleed in the end (by banging it on my desk when connecting the ADSL modem to the phone line).

--Tuomas, 14-Oct-2005

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I also feel your pain. I have always built my own systems and have been willing to put up with the pain since it is the exact hardware I want/need.

I've had family members ask in the past, and I built a few systems. When they now ask I reply "Dude, you're getting a Dell!!!"

I second the votes for NVidia cards, I've had a few and they work well. (Well they do run hot, but that may not be an issue.

In your case, try to think of it as a labor of love :-)

--Foster, 14-Oct-2005

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About Linux and 3D - the only cards that really work are older ATI Radeons, up to 9200. Anything later, or an nVidia, requires binary drivers form the manufacturer. And if you're going that way you might as well use Windows + Cygwin.

Ubuntu configured my Radeons nicely without me doing anything, btw. Debian requires lots of hacking which I rarely do as the only use for 3D are the OpenGL xscreensaver hacks....

As for the AGP card not working, never seen that one. Then again, I don't own anything later than a bunch of 9200s and one Quadro 2. Trying to get hardware released during the last two or so years up and running is a waste of time IMHO.

--Kimberly, 14-Oct-2005

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PCs = activity generators Macs = tools, cost more, some hate them, because they are marketed with design

Always were, always will be.

Try the following:

- Disable "fast writes" in bios (and in drivers, if allowed) (unless you are on A64 platform) - Make sure your 3.3V and 5V lines are up to snuff (measure from the molex with a meter, not using bios sensors) -> If not, consider PSU upgrade

It was a bit unclear from you post, if the error is at A) bios/power level, B) OS/device driver level C) application/API layer level.

If you can't get it fixed, please elaborate.

Off-topic (not a troll):

PS Yes, I use, build and configure my own PCs, but I recommend Macs to everybody who don't need special devices or don't want to tinker. I've accidentally converted several PC users to Mac and they've been happy campers ever since (always thanking me and asking why they didn't switch earlier). It's not that Macs are without their problems, but for the average user or somebody who doesn't want to tinker (and requires no Linux/Win32 specific apps) they are a killer, imho. Example: my friend is doing design on a Mac bought in '95, with only 1 cpu/mem upgrade/new monitor in between otherwise exactly same hardware. No problems they can't deal with (sure it crashes occasionally), no continued re-installs, no tinkering - just works. And this is MacO S9. I can't count the number of times I've re-installed various Windows versions during the same 10 years :)

--vasra, 17-Oct-2005

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Thanks. I think I've fiddled with all the functionality in BIOS. It seems that the problem in question was some incompatibility between nForce chipset and the ATI board - once I moved it to my older, AMD 761-based system, it started to work fine.

Now the problem is that Ubuntu has become exceedingly unstable under the new graphics card. Both the Xfree and ATI official drivers seem to be very flaky (the XFree driver is more solid, but it crashes any Java AWT application almost instantly, so it's a nogo). The ATI official drivers (both the ones that come with Ubuntu and the ones downloaded from their web site) somewhat work, but Java still crashes on occasion.

Though it could be sound as well: running amaroK for more than 15 minutes tends to kill aRTs.

So I'm sort of fine, provided that I don't use a) 3D, b) sound, c) any graphical Java app.

This sucks. I already own a Mac, and it has been the most trouble-free machine I've ever had. I'm sort of waiting for the x86 Macs, but I might just buy whatever Apple brings out on the 19th...

--JanneJalkanen, 17-Oct-2005

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