[GRLUG] IBM NetVista not booting graphical environment

[john-thomas richards]

On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 03:39:28PM -0500, Rick Vargo wrote:
> Try going into the BIOS setup and enabling the onboard card.  Then see
> if you cannot run through setup with the monitor hooked to it.  This may
> be something where setup is seeing the onboard card as the primary even
> though it is disabled in the BIOS setup.  Once you get it up and running
> and confirm the NVIDIA card is working then you can try disabling it again.
> 

Excellent idea.  I will try that.  Thanks.

> 
> 
> john-thomas richards wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 03:22:28PM -0500, Rick Vargo wrote:
> >   
> >> john-thomas richards wrote:
> >>     
> >>> I am helping a friend with his non-profit's computer (he runs an inner-city
> >>> ministry that helps with job placement, tutoring for students, leadership
> >>> development, etc.).  The machine is an IBM NetVista, Pentium III processor,
> >>> and an nVidia card.  I attempted to install XP (he *needs* Quickbooks) for
> >>> him.  The install works fine until the machine reboots and attempts to load
> >>> the GUI.  When it does so, the monitor goes into sleep mode and requires a
> >>> hard reboot (the keyboard becomes unresponsive).  I thought this was odd
> >>> behavior so I got another *identical* machine (literally; he received a
> >>> donation of several identical machines from a local business) and tried
> >>> installing XP onto that blank drive (after formatting, of course).  Again the
> >>> monitor went into sleep mode.  I then booted the machine with a Knoppix CD.
> >>> The initial splash screen (complete with graphic and a "boot:" prompt) comes
> >>> up but when I type in "knoppix" to start Knoppix, the monitor again goes into
> >>> sleep mode and requires a hard reboot.  The behavior is identical with XP and
> >>> Knoppix on three machines.  I suspect it is an idiosyncracy with IBM hardware.
> >>> Any suggestions?
> >>>
> >>>       
> >> Does that computer happen to have two video cards (possibly an onboard
> >> card and an AGP card)?
> >>     
> >
> > It has onboard video and an AGP nVidia card.  I tried swapping the nVidia
> > card with an ATI card and got the same response.  I also tried the onboard
> > video.  It is quite bizarre.
> >   
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-- 
john-thomas
------
We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction.
General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)