Broken hardware?

English Hardware
#1

Hi Linux users, I have a big problem with my laptop.
It is a dell inspiron 9400 and since the last crash of kde I see during the bios process green stripes.

Starting linux doesn’t work either. Booting failsave works (no display errors then)

System information:
2 Ghz
2 GB RAM
NVidia GeForce 7900 GS
OpenSuse 11 with KDE 4 and all updates

I really hope somebody can help.
Here the message log: (since I don’t know how to upload attachments, i shortened the message to what I believe is relevant)

Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 17 00 00 08
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] 4001760 512-byte hardware sectors (2049 MB)
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 17 00 00 08
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel:  sdb: sdb1
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
Oct 31 22:34:04 inspiron9400 kernel: usb-storage: device scan complete
Oct 31 22:34:05 inspiron9400 hald: mounted /dev/sdb1 on behalf of uid 1000
Oct 31 22:54:43 inspiron9400 hald: unmounted /dev/sdb1 from '/media/NO NAME' on behalf of uid 1000
Oct 31 23:05:58 inspiron9400 syslog-ng[1477]: syslog-ng version 1.6.12 starting
Oct 31 23:05:59 inspiron9400 rchal: CPU frequency scaling is not supported by your processor.
Oct 31 23:05:59 inspiron9400 rchal: boot with 'CPUFREQ=no' in to avoid this warning.
Oct 31 23:05:59 inspiron9400 rchal: Cannot load cpufreq governors - No cpufreq driver available
Oct 31 23:06:00 inspiron9400 SuSEfirewall2: batch committing...
Oct 31 23:06:00 inspiron9400 SuSEfirewall2: Firewall rules set to CLOSE.
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: klogd 1.4.1, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 10
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: powernow_k8: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_notify_smm
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: powernow_k8: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_unregister_performance
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: powernow_k8: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_register_performance
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: ip6_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: powernow_k7: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_notify_smm
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: powernow_k7: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_unregister_performance
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: powernow_k7: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_register_performance
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: acpi_cpufreq: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_notify_smm
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: acpi_cpufreq: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_unregister_performance
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: acpi_cpufreq: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_preregister_performance
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: acpi_cpufreq: Unknown symbol acpi_processor_register_performance
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: ip_tables: (C) 2000-2006 Netfilter Core Team
Oct 31 23:06:03 inspiron9400 kernel: nf_conntrack version 0.5.0 (16384 buckets, 65536 max)
Oct 31 23:06:06 inspiron9400 kdm_config[1745]: Multiple occurrences of key 'Language' in section [X-*-Greeter] of /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc
Oct 31 23:06:06 inspiron9400 kdm_config[1745]: Multiple occurrences of key 'ShowUsers' in section [X-*-Greeter] of /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc
Oct 31 23:06:06 inspiron9400 kdm_config[1745]: Multiple occurrences of key 'UseBackground' in section [X-*-Greeter] of /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc
Oct 31 23:06:06 inspiron9400 kdm_config[1745]: Multiple occurrences of key 'UseTheme' in section [X-*-Greeter] of /usr/share/kde4/config/kdm/kdmrc
Oct 31 23:06:07 inspiron9400 network: Starting the NetworkManager
Oct 31 23:06:08 inspiron9400 nm-system-settings: Loaded plugin ifcfg-suse: (C) 2008 Novell, Inc.  To report bugs please use the NetworkManager mailing list.
Oct 31 23:06:08 inspiron9400 nm-system-settings: Loaded plugin keyfile: (c) 2007 - 2008 Red Hat, Inc.  To report bugs please use the NetworkManager mailing list.
Oct 31 23:06:08 inspiron9400 nm-system-settings: Invalid or missing ssid
Oct 31 23:06:09 inspiron9400 kernel: BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 0 devices found
Oct 31 23:06:09 inspiron9400 kernel: EDD information not available.
#2

This last sentence is a bit confusing. Linux is the overall OS. So if booting failsafe works, then Linux works.

Note a failsafe boot is very similar to a regular boot, but in the case of failsafe, a number of extra boot codes are added. You can see those extra boot codes in the grub menu when you first choose failsafe. You can also find those boot codes in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file (you need root permissions to open that file).

One thing you could do to troubleshoot, is write down those boot codes, then boot to a regular boot, BUT add one boot code for each boot, trying a different code each boot attempt, until you find out what boot code allows your boot to succeed. That information will help provide information as to what the problem might be.

#3

Hi oldcpu,
thx for your answer.

I tried removing boot codes from the failsafe menu.
x11failsafe vga=0x317 works

When I remove x11 failsafe starting X is not possible -> display errors and freeze

#4

x11failsafe is new to me.

Try a regular boot, and as soon as the grub menu appears, type: x11failsafe

Can you boot with that? If so, then something is likely wrong with your KDE configuration (that x11failsfe) manages to avoid.

#5

Yes, could boot with that.
I also run

sax2 -r -m 0=vesa

And now I can also boot with the regular menu entry.
But unfortunately vesa doesn’t support the needed resuolution (1900x1200)
So everything looks a little bit strange.
I contacted the dell support and they will change the graphic card next week.

But I’m not sure it is the graphic card, since the graphic card was already replaced two month ago.
We’ll see.