[Wylug-help] Fwd: Laptop display problems - Radeon X600

[John Craven]

1. Have you tried to boot up in safe mode ?
2. Have you tried an external monitor ?

These two tests may lead you to the possible problem.

hth

John C

At 14:33 20/12/2011 +0000, you wrote:
>On 12/20/2011 01:03 PM, Anne Wilson wrote:
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: James Holden <wylug at jamesholden.net>
> > Date: 20 December 2011 10:50
> > Subject: Re: [Wylug-help] Laptop display problems - Radeon X600
> > To: wylug-help at wylug.org.uk
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 03:40:27PM +0000, Anne Wilson wrote:
> >> I was asked to make a clean install of Windows XP and Mageia onto an
> >> elderly laptop.  All was going well until I did some serious updating.
> >
> > Firmware updating of some sort?
> >
>Possible.
>
> >> Mageia - after a full update, the display is lengthened to the point
> >> where the KDE panel is off-screen.  I'm getting round that for now by
> >> installing a second panel at the top.
> >
> > Sounds like it's not detecting the screen properly. Is this the
> > internal LCD? Do you know the native resolution?
> >
> > Can you post the output of running "xrandr" in a terminal?
> >
> > The output of "lspci" would be useful too.
> >
>I'll see what's possible, though the screen is unreadable at normal text
>sizes.
>
> >> Windows XP - was fine until I did the SP3 update.  Now the display is
> >> garbled, with all text dithered.  I tried restoring to before the
> >> update, but the display is the same.  Is it possible that the update has
> >> damaged the display card?  If necessary I'll go back to a clean install,
> >> but the need for updates will remain.  I know that XP without SP3 is not
> >> going to receive updates.
> >
> > Hardware damage is very unlikely. Older ATI chipsets aren't
> > supported by the latest ATI proprietary drivers on Linux. The
> > same may be true for Windows.
> >
>That does sound to be a possible reason - though it does beg the
>question of whether using a Windows restore point should have taken me
>back to the original drivers.  I've never had to rely on a restore point
>before - have you (or anyone else) any experience regarding this?
>
> >> This laptop is to be a fall-back only, so I'm reluctant to spend too
> >> much time or money on it - it's already cost me over a day's work.  I
> >> did wonder whether replacing the display card was feasible, but I've
> >> never done that on a laptop.
> >
> > Unlikely, I've never seen one as a separate card in a laptop.
> > It's all very tightly integrated.
> >
> >> Thoughts?
> >
> > Well... if it's a fall-back, I'd feel inclined to restore it
> > from the recovery partition if possible or put a bare-bones XP
> > install on it so it minimally works and ebay it. Save the cash
> > and buy a cheap laptop later down the line when you actually
> > need a fall-back.
> >
>I probably won't eBay it, but I will try to get it back to the barebones
>install.  Either I'll get an emergency laptop or it will be ditched.
>
>Anne
>
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Text inserted by Panda IS 2012:
>
>  This message has NOT been classified as spam. If it is unsolicited mail 
> (spam), click on the following link to reclassify it: 
> http://localhost:6083/Panda?ID=pav_5232&SPAM=true&path=C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\John%20C\Local%20Settings\Application%20Data\Panda%20Security\Panda%20Internet%20Security%202012\AntiSpam
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>Wylug-help mailing list
>Wylug-help at wylug.org.uk
>https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/wylug-help

=================================================

   Check out our British Country Music Web Sites

         http://www.countrymusic.org.uk
         http://www.bcmi-radio.co.uk

   Over 300,000 visitors a week

=================================================