Odd FireGL problem.

reply to post by shiman


Please. Perhaps I can help you. You said the machine is a Dell. It is video a PCI plug in card, or is it onboard video? If it is a card, dirty contacts could be the culprit. Try moving the card to a different interface. What chipset do you have? VIA, Intel, SiS?

I would get into BIOS and see what the settings are for the video first. Then try loading default settings and reboot.

As for Grub 2, I had some problems with that boot loader also. I wish all Linux distros had Lilo for a boot loader.

reply to post by autowrench


The video card is a PCI-e card. I dont have any other PCI-e slots on the system. I dont know much about the chipset right now, i will check it when i get home. I do know that the motherboard and power supply is proprietary.

I have checked the bios for video related settings and turned up with nothing.

I dont have any problems with the bootloader. The OS runs completely fine, as it is a fresh install.

How would one clean the contacts on a PCI-e slot?

reply to post by imtheweasel


I didnt buy an aftermarket power supply, but i wouldnt put it past dell to cut some corners. I'll try to stick a voltometer on the 6 pin connector in question. Would i be checking both volts and amps? or should i check watts too.

I believe the power supply is dell, i'll look at the box itsself for any other brand names.

reply to post by shiman


If its a proprietary Dell PSU, its probably much weaker than the 750 watts it claims. I've had several problems with Dell power supplies in the past. If you have access to an aftermarket power supply with pci-e connectors, try hooking it up and powering the system with it, taking the dell out of the equation temporarily and see what happens.
As for testing it with a voltmeter, it should be @ 12v output on that rail. You likely wont be able to see how many amps/watts it can supply on the 12v rail until it is put under a load.

I did some checking around and found that the Dell Workstation 490/690 PSU's (N750P-00) are typically made by "Newton Power". And that the 750watt version has 4 12v rails.

12v Rail A: 18.0A
12v Rail B: 18.0A
12v Rail C: 18.0A
12v Rail D: 16.0A



Most or all of the HD line and Fire series of ATI cards require at least 25-30 amps running down the 12V Rail. Most generic PSU’s only push around 18 amps down a 12v rail.

I'd still recommend trying an aftermarket psu here. I've just personally had too much trouble out of the Dell factory psu's to trust them.

Will continue to follow this thread.

reply to post by shiman


I use alcohol and a Q-Tip myself, the alcohol will clean most anything the contacts may have on them, and it dries really fast.

reply to post by imtheweasel


Funny thing, when i brought the 7200 back, they tested it on a system with a 350 watt stock compaq supply, and it worked fine. I have no access to it.

I'll try to get an aftermarket supply to test it on.

reply to post by autowrench


Ok. I have lots of those to go around .

I will post results when i preform these actions.

reply to post by shiman


You would be amazed at the overall poor quality of some of the power supplies i have seen over the years. I bought a cheap "850 Watt" psu one time, paid $24 for it. Had tons of hookups and was perfect for what i needed. Unfortunately it was a far cry from being able to handle upto 850w. After having it tested, it turns out it was barely able to handle 280 watts before voltages would drop and it would fail. On the other hand, i've bought brand new PC Power & Cooling, Coolermaster, Antec, and Ultra brand power supplies for new custom builds, only to find out that the power supplies where defective from the factory.

Give the contact cleaning a shot and see what happens, and can of the air duster stuff works great to blow any debris that may be inside the PCI-E channel out too.

So, i checked the 6 pin with a psu tester, everything seems fine there. I also cleaned the PCI-e slot with a cloth and rubbing alcohol. Nothing changed really.

I took of this back support thing that was only causing trouble, cause it pushes on the card funny and doesn't do anything else functionality wise. Some of the funky pixles went away (not all) and none of the letters during post are misplaced.

I'm going to test with two screens, to make Ubuntu use the proprietary driver. Otherwise it wont.

also, to autowrench, i believe the chipset is intel, but a nonstandard intel.

Still havent gotten an aftermarket

PS. Anything i forgot?

If the piece you removed was pushing the card to one side in the pci-e slot, it may have been creating a contact issue, and thus causing the problem. I have seen where some of the newer cards with heavy heatsink setups tends to do just that because of the weight and being mounted the way they are in a desktop tower case.

That may have been what the problem was. As for the pixel issue, that could be monitor related (dead pixels, etc).

reply to post by imtheweasel


The pixel issue isnt monitor related. The odd pixels dont show up when i use the other card, and they arent there all the time. Just on the dell logo, one or two in the bios (they change with navigation), but they kinda disappear from what i see when ubuntu boots. It's not monitor specific either. One monitor is vga, with a dvi converter at the computer end, and the other one is straight up dvi.

This card does have a rather large stock cooling unit.

Just for reference, the red part at the back of the card in this picture is what i removed:



My dell does have a slot like thing for that red part to slide into, but it doesnt line up with the card, or any of the slots for that matter, thus pushing on the card.

reply to post by shiman


Ahh ok, I see what you mean now from looking at the pic.
I would suspect the dvi to vga adapter, but you stated it happens even with the direct dvi cable. Very strange problem indeed...

I'm gonna check with a few colleagues and see what input they can give on this. Perhaps they may pick up on something im missing.

It seems to have all but stopped. There are 2 odd blue pixels next to the dell logo at POST, other than that, nothing else is wrong. Still have to check out how it runs under a dual monitor setup.

Doubt it is hardware. Check for a BIOS update. Artifacts during boot up usually don't end well.

Update for the curious: Contact with Dell support reveals that my power supply is failing, and i must get a new one. Not enough amps to power the device fully, it dropped back to being a standard low power video card.