** Reply to message from "Carl E. Hartung" <suselinux@cehartung.com> on Mon, 8 Aug 2005 16:46:06 -0400 Hi, Carl. Thanks for reply. Comments inserted into your message.
Hi Gil,
I Googled your error message and did a /lot/ of reading...
First, did you ever resolve this issue on your e-machine last October? The two SLE threads are nearly identical... lots of advice from lots of experienced sources leading to no positive conclusion that I could find.
No, never resolved. Last time I was trying with SuSE 9.2. Nothing worked and eventually I just put the card back in the box. Now I have just upgraded to 9.3, and I was hoping that in the intervening months there would be a new driver or something else in the on-line updates or from Nvidia that would make it worth another try.
Second, the general concensus seems to be that you'd better check the hardware for either a) being defective, b) not installed correctly or c) the host system is not compatible, possibly by design. Yes, some PC brands *still* force you to buy upgrade hardware from them by building in extra special "custom improvements" that make the systems proprietary.
Ah, yes. Well if it's defective I have no way to check. All of my computers have only Linux -- no Windoze here at all. It must be installed correctly (physically anyway) as I've tried it in 3 PCI slots. So even if one slot were problematic I don't think the others would be. (At least I am assuming they would not all be bad.) If PNY has intentionally designed the card to work only with Windoze then, again, I have no way to know. PNY customer support does not speak Linux, so they are of no help. They keep telling me to install Windoze. :o( If e-Machines has intentionally done something then, again, I don't know. They also are not conversant in Linux.
Finally, when you run "sax -l" (lower case 'L') you're telling it to run in basic plain vanilla VESA compliant VGA mode, which every PC card made in the world for the last decade knows how to 'speak'. In other words, when SaX2 probes and can't initialize basic VGA, you've got a fundamental hardware problem on your hands.
Well, that's hitting it right in the face! :o) Yast says the resolution is 1024X768, but I can tell you it sure as heck looks like 640X480. And the output I included in a previous e-mail all says 640X480 and 800X600. I will call PNY and see what they say. Thanks for the e-mail. I really do appreciate the comments. If it is a defective card that would certainly explain the frustrating time I'm having. Thanks. Gil