Just wanted to update everyone on my progress (or lack thereof) with problems getting SuSE 9.3 to configure my PCI video card and monitor on an e-Machine. 1) To Pat: I apologize if I never replied to your suggestion to try ctrl/alt/F1 to drop to a terminal. I did try that and got the same error message when trying to run sax2: <ups lost card during probing... abort>. 2) Over the past few days with Carl's patient assistance I have been learning how to use Instant Messaging, and I've set up the requisite accounts. So in the next couple of days I will be able to "talk" directly. I know that Carl, Lee, Stan, and Felix (forgive me if I forgot anyone) have all expressed a willingness to help. Many thanks! 3) In addition, with a reinstall of Xine and a couple of associated rpms I have solved my video playback problems. I can now play all of my video clips. :o) 4) Finally, my problmatic floppy drive does work. I can send to/retreive from the floppy using a command line. And I can see the files on the floppy if I open /media/floppy. However, I still cannot see the files when I click on the floppy icon in "my computer." That function has mysteriously gone away. Thanks to Anders for the suggestion to look at /media/floppy. :o) So, baby steps, baby steps. I am hoping that we can get to the root of this PCI video card/motherboard problem before too much longer. Thanks, everyone, for your patience and help! :o) Gil

** Reply to message from Kenneth Payne on Sat, 20 Aug 2005 15:41:09 +0100

Gil -

You were spot on. I thought I had set the screensaver but I re-set it just to be sure thanks to your suggestion and now everything is OK.

Thanks to you and thanks to Arun K Khan and James Knott for taking the trouble to help with the problem.

I've had some bad experiences with acpi in the past - the screen blanking off and then never coming back on or taking an age to come back on - so I was quick to blame the problem on that rather than look for the simplest explanation.

Thanks again. Best wishes - Ken

Ah, like Winnie the Pooh I am a bear of very small brain... but every once in awhile I get it right. :o) Glad to have been of assistance. Gil

Greg - Thanks for your suggestion, but as it happens my problem is solved. It turned out to be my stupidity - I thought I had the screensaver set but I hadn't and it was defaulting to a blank screen. Thanks again Best wishes - Ken On Sunday 21 August 2005 04:47, Greg Wallace wrote:

On Saturday, August 20, 2005 @ 2:36 Am, Kenneth Payne wrote:

...

I've just upgraded to SuSE 9.3 and I now have a system where the display blanks out after about 10 minutes of non-use.

This is obviously power-management and it's working OK because if I touch the mouse or keyboard the display restores immediately.

However, I never like this behaviour in a desktop PC so I always shut it off. This time, I can't seem to kill it. I've stopped the powersave demon, I've put acpi=off (that worked in SuSE 9.2) into the boot parameters, but

nothing

...

stops it.

Can anyone tell me the magic incantation?

Best wishes

-Ken

I think you just need to set up a screen saver so that your monitor has a steady signal. That should keep it from dozing off.

Greg Wallace

On Sunday, August 21, 2005 @ 11:20 AM, Darryl Gregorash wrote:

Kenneth Payne wrote:

...

Greg -

Thanks for your suggestion, but as it happens my problem is solved. It turned out to be my stupidity - I thought I had the screensaver set but I hadn't and it was defaulting to a blank screen.

There is one other place that is involved in turning the screen off, and it bugged me greatly until I started digging everywhere. I use a blank screensaver by preference, with a 30 minute setting. I was still getting screen off after 10.

Turning off ACPI in the BIOS didn't work (Linux seems to be famous for ignoring BIOS settings and using system capabilities instead -- which is nice if you must fool the BIOS because of some bug, not necessarily nice always).

KDE by default uses DPMS, and that setting is nowhere near the one for the screensaver. Open KControl, click on Peripherals/Display, then select the "Power control" tab. There you can deselect power management, or if you choose to use it, configure separate timings for standby, suspend and power off. The defaults are 10, 20 and 30 minutes, respectively, which is where your 10 minute interval is coming from.

Arun Khan also suggested running "xset -dpms" which does the same thing. The xset command is probably worth looking at, because it performs a lot of tasks that KDE has scattered all over the place (and that is annoying to say the least).

My monitor has a built-in power down after 5 minutes of inactivity on the screen. So, I have to set my screen savers to fire up after 4 minutes; otherwise, the monitor powers down (it doesn't turn off, it just shuts off the signal to the screen). Greg Wallace

Greg Wallace wrote:

On Saturday, August 20, 2005 @ 2:36 Am, Kenneth Payne wrote:

...

I've just upgraded to SuSE 9.3 and I now have a system where the display blanks out after about 10 minutes of non-use.

...

This is obviously power-management and it's working OK because if I touch the mouse or keyboard the display restores immediately.

...

However, I never like this behaviour in a desktop PC so I always shut it off. This time, I can't seem to kill it. I've stopped the powersave demon, I've put acpi=off (that worked in SuSE 9.2) into the boot parameters, but nothing stops it. Can anyone tell me the magic incantation? Best wishes -Ken

I think you just need to set up a screen saver so that your monitor has a steady signal. That should keep it from dozing off.

Greg Wallace

I have noticed a similar problem with my Nokia 445Xi monitor, NVidia card and SuSE where when transfering to a tty# it requires turning the monitor power OFF/ON. The image is there but the monitor seems to miss a wakeup call if it is sent. -- 73 de Donn Washburn Hpage: " http://www.hal-pc.org/~n5xwb " Ham Callsign N5XWB Email : " n5xwb@hal-pc.org " 307 Savoy St. HAMs: " n5xwb@arrl.net " Sugar Land, TX 77478 BMW MOA #: 4146 - Ambassador LL# 1.281.242.3256 " http://counter.li.org " #279316