I have some questions pertaining to why this laptop I have has black lines in the background and runs slowly at times. I’m no computer wizard, so I have looked in free -m and top, but the issue is that I don’t know what to look for exactly. Before I go and spend some cash on some extra RAM, I would like to know exactly what I need before I buy. So here some basics on this computer:
Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M7400
Processor Intel Centrino 1.4GHz
40GB HDD
Using Suse 11.1 with KDE
Well can only go on what you’ve posted, though you used the m flag you’re not showing it.
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 504416{So 500mb real ram} 481140{480mb used} 23276 0 20532 153688
-/+ buffers/cache: 306920{306mb actually used} 197496{194mb free-caches,buffers & free}
Swap: 763048{750mb swap} 122728{120mb of swap used} 640320
So the interesting thing is you are swapping out shown by the used in swap, ideally you don’t want to be swapping out. Though there is certain apps where it may be necessary/difficult/impossible but rareish i.e large images/txt file etc if this represents normal usage then swapping should be eliminated(Disk will always be slower than ram has to go back in).
As for black lines mmm possible that this is an effect but need to know more i.e driver, chipset is it being allocated system ram does it have its own ram etc… I suspect it’ll be an onboard which will mean it is using system ram.
j-dub wrote:
> I have some questions pertaining to why this laptop I have has black
> lines in the background and runs slowly at times.
those “black lines in the background” sound a lot like video driver
problem…
before rushing out to buy RAM i’d investigate getting the video
squared away first…unfortunately Intel is not the best graphic
maker for open source, so you have to be patient…
first step would probably be to turn off desktop effects and see if
you machine doesn’t get faster and less cluttered by funky black lines…
hopefully an Intel video guru will help you further…
hmmmm…i see you joined here a couple of months ago, so let me ask:
did it run without the black lines and less slow until recently?
if so, what changed? updates? added software? maybe by one-click? did
a little self “tuning” of config files…what?
I rolled back on some repositories, set Packman to 20 priority and so forth. Desktop Effects in NOT enabled. Changed the theme to Air from Tragedy and saw some improvement. Also changed to low resolution and low CPU. Here is the current free memory output. The computer has an Intel 855i Chipset.
The only thing that has been added has been songbird package, thunderbird package, and sunbird package. I use songbird as my primary music player, Thunderbird for email, and Sunbird for my Calendar/appointments. Other than those, there has not been any added packages (that I know of). On the desktop I run Facebook widget, Plasmapy Weather, Analog clock, and picture frame. Changing the desktop theme to Air and changing the low CPU/low res setting sped up the computer some, but the black lines still exist to some degree. I have a desktop as well with an i845 Intel chipset with a 2.6GHz Intel Celeron and 1024MB ram and 11.2 Suse runs well, which is why I question the RAM of this laptop being only 512MB.
I think you’re correct, if I was to guess I reckon you’re using less videoram now, I like palladium have little knowledge of intel but there is a videoram setting for xorg.conf. Though I’m inclined to think you just have to much going on with the widgets.
I think it is possibly an Intel issue since on my desktop computer I had issues with Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic running on it at 1024X768 resolution due to the Intel drivers. Reverting to older drivers gave me 1024X768 resolution. With the newer drivers, it only would run at 800X600 resolution, which on my desktop LCD monitor is HUGE. On the case of this laptop, it could be a possibility that Intel chipsets are causing issues with many Linux distros. Blast it, why could I not find a laptop with ATI or Nvidia graphics. But this laptop was found in trash laying in snow and still works, so I can’t complain that much.
Well to be honest I don’t actually think the lines are specifically caused by the driver, this is easy to test use a DE that is not as heavy on ram usage LXDE would be my choice.
Am I the only one with Intel graphics who is more than happy with its performance when compared to what I was expecting?
(OK,I was not expecting much!).!
I’ll give it a try and see what comes of it. If so I think I would rather choose a stable desktop instead of buggy black lines on my screen. I will test and see what happens and post back.
To be fair dvhenry and not going on any experience but several distro’s forums I would say they seem hit and miss. I see some like you raving about recent improvements and others that have had a nightmare rolling back xorg. I get the impression for the last year or so there has been some xorg, kernel and driver mods that are impacting but it seems to be settling down now.
To be fair dvhenry and not going on any experience but several distro’s forums I would say they seem hit and miss. I see some like you raving about recent improvements and others that have had a nightmare rolling back xorg. I get the impression for the last year or so there has been some xorg, kernel and driver mods that are impacting but it seems to be settling down now.
For me this X3100 performs reliably,and beyond expectation on each OS I have thrown at it.
It would be nice if we could see this result as standard.
Ok, here is what I have unbelievably discovered. The black lines when scrolling are only and I mean ONLY a Firefox issue. Mozilla has a bug report on it and they are working to find a solution. This bug affects many users and it is not hardware related. Seems as if from reading this bug report, it involves an issue with the ‘smooth scrolling’ option. When this option is turned on, the black lines are possible. Without this option turned on, the lines may show, but few and almost unoticeable. I thought about the issue and I know now that this is definitely a Firefox issue because when I open the browser in Songbird, which has Firefox integrated, it does not do this. Granted, Songbird uses an older and lighter version of Firefox in its Music player which completely answers this issue…its not this computer, its not Suse, its Firefox for certain users (random). Guess I was one of the unlucky ones. Another solution would be to roll back Firefox to an earlier version and see if this resolves the bug. It is not only a particular issue for those using Intel chipsets, it has been detected on ATI and Nvidia chipsets as well. Just thought I would let you all know to get the word out to all recently updated Firefox users so that if they experience the same issue that this what the issue is.