PCLinuxOS Doesn't always boot successfully - SOLVED

[Neal ManBear]

Embedded = an intergrated graphics card; i.e. it is an integrated part of the motherboard, as opposed to a card inserted into a slot.     

[melodie]

Hi,

I just read this model graphic card is one of poor quality, and not a "real" X200.

Your's is this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xpress_200#Radeon_Xpress_200_for_Intel

you can see here also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_ATI_chipsets

"RS400
RS415

RC400
RC410    ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 (originally named ATI Radeon Xpress 200 for Intel)
Intel Essential Series D101GCC/D102GCC (Grand Country)"

I read somewhere else that this card would have a single canal instead of a dual canal (whatever that means).

I would not say for sure that the problem comes from the card, but I think if you install an old geforce or such on a pci port in your machine and switch to it, it might fix the problem. These cards are sold for small prices now.

[Neal ManBear]

+1 on switching to a card. Onboard graphics are often not of good quality.     

[mag]

Well, here's how I see it.

I used to have an XP system that took about 10 minutes to boot to usability.

I now have PCLOS OB that takes 40 seconds to boot to usability - and then everything works much quicker too.

Even if it failed to boot one time in two I'd still be much better off.

I know very little about changing hardware - or even if the BIOS would recognise the new card (and other posters have suggested the PSU needs changing too).

My wife is starting to mutter that since I started experimenting with Linux there are three of us in the marriage, so I think I'll drop this for the time being.

Next time I'm in my local PC repair shop I'll ask. The guys there are pretty good with Linux. This machine is 6 years old and owes me nothing, so maybe I'll treat it to some new hardware.

Thanks again for all your help, and for a great OS.

mag

[Dragynn]

May not be helpful, but I know all too well about the 200m chips. Audio is strangely, also built into those chips, mine fried one day on a minor software change (using another distro).

Just a small chance, but I have an older machine that will steadily have boot/shutdown issues if plymouth is enabled, runs just fine otherwise, but will lock up partway through the process frequently when using plymouth.

I just changed the menu.lst entry from "splash=silent" to "splash=verbose", and my problem went away. You might try it, if nothing else to just eliminate that as being the source of the problem.

[mag]

I already replaced splash=silent with nomodeset, but I'll give splash=verbose a shot.

Thanks

[mag]

At least 10 boots without problem.

Thanks Dragynn.

[mag]

The occasional fail to boot problem is still there  - rather more frequent lately.

I'm going to try a cheap Geforce card - EVGA GeForce 8400GS 512MB GDDR3

Any advice on what drivers I might need to install to get it running would be much appreciated.

Thanks

(from the Geforce website it appears I need: 

Linux Display Driver - x86
Version:290.1

but I am not sure I have the know-how to start downloading and installing stuff that isn't provided through synaptic).

[JohnW_57]

Nvidia 290.10 video driver for Linux is in repositories and is just actual!
Drivers downloading from their site is not needed.

JohnW

[mag]

Thanks John - found it in the repos now.

Fingers crossed for a trouble-free installation then!

[Lucky Blue]

I suspect the problem is the video driver - the post from JohnW_57 should fix it with luck. 
Now, I have had a similar problem.   I pulled out the mouse USB plug and put it back in to a another USB socket.  Problem has not reoccurred!  So far ....
Well it something easy to try. 

[mag]

New graphics card installed and problem has gone!

Thanks to all who helped.

(slight moment of panic on the way - until I realized you have to move the monitor cable to the graphic card output as well )