nvidia drivers on asus geforce 210 silent - do they work?

English Multimedia
1

Hello,

Running 12.1 64 bit on intel processor. I am looking to load the nvidia drivers for my asus geforce 210 silent card in order to get sound on hdmi. Unfortunately asus support cannot tell me if the nvidia drivers will be supported. Does anyone have this card (or similar asus graphics card) running successfully with the nvidia drivers, and was it just a vanilla install for the nvidia drivers (or were unnatural acts required)?

Thanks – Roger

2

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/14-121-385-TS?$S300W$

ASUS EN210 SILENT/DI/512MD2(LP) GeForce 210 512MB 64-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card

So it is very hard to run into someone else that has the exact video card you are looking for. Here are some comments that I have found.

Great for Home Theater PC

    http://images10.newegg.com/WebResource/Themes/2005/Nest/none.gif               “- Works perfectly with Ubuntu Linux
  • VDPAU video decoding compatible
  • Absolutely Silent
  • Low power usage
  • …
                              *Pros:* Silent/fanless.

Supports PureVideo VP4 and Linux VDPAU feature set C.
CPU usage when playing video drops to almost 0.
Fast enough for non-extreme 3D games.

             *Cons:* None.
             *Other Thoughts:* This is *not* a gaming card!

                                                                *Pros:* Decoding video is a breeze, even in linux.
             *Cons:* Miserable 3d performance, but that's not what this card is for.

I can say that its a low power card and not all that powerful graphic wise but it seems to be cheap enough and several claim it works with Linux.

Thank You,

3

Thanks. It sounds like what I really need to do is determine a appropriately powered nvidia graphics card that works with the nvidia linux drivers. That would assure me adequate graphics capability and sound on my hdmi feed.

Hopefully there are some graphics card discussions here in this forum - I will search, and do another inquiry post if insufficient info available.

Thanks and regards – Roger

4

I have been using nVIDIA cards from the start of using Linux as they have provided the best support in Linux for me. I can say I have had very little problems. I did buy a GT 240 a while back which had problems for me, but in the end, it was a hardware defect which anyone can get when buying a new video card. I am presently using a GTX 560 and have a 450 and 460 as well and all work like a champ. These are middle of the road cards which are neither super cheap or real expensive either. I just saw a GT 450 Ti in our local Fry’s catalog for $78 dollars and if I wanted a good low priced card, that might be what I would look for.

Thank You,

5

Thanks, I have enjoyed my nvidia card as well. Who is the manufacturer of the card you mention, and did the nvidia drivers install with no problems??

Regards – Roger

6

EVGA makes the GTX 560 card in my main system but I have owned nVIDIA cards built by BFG, PAILT and Galaxy as well of recent build that have worked well. I have been using nVIDIA cards for the last 10 years or so. I have only had three nVIDIA cards ever fail in that time. One, which I can no longer remember the model number on, I used in a over clocking application in Windows and blew it up myself. A second, a WinFast PX8500 failed on me after a few years of use. It had no fan and I think in the end, it just over heated on me. It did effect the HDMI input on my TV though I have two others to select from. And the last was a GT 240, seemingly bad out of the Box. I upgrade my system as often as I can and push the older stuff down to a backup PC and to my son and daughter who are old enough to buy their own, but who love to get something for free from their dad. I just recently upgraded my daughter to a PAILT GT 450 and my son later to a PAILT GTX 460. The EVGA GTX 560 is the newest thing and I am using now looking at a new nVIDIA 600 series card to buy, but trying to stay under $200 if at all possible.

Thank You,

7

Thanks for the information. Looks like the highest level graphics card my computer will support is the gtx550 ti (going higher would require replacing the power supply to get an additional 6 pin dongle…). Aside from that, nvidia would indicate that the 550 is an 18x improvement on my current card - hopefully sufficient for my completely non-gaming environment. Also will likely go with the evga - seems like a well respected vendor. Specs say internal audio for hdmi, so I have hopes on that front as well.

Thanks again – Roger

8

Roger, if you buy the new card, you must come back and tell us the good and the bad, if anything comes up bad. We need to know how you have done, your luck with a new product and really the whole experience you had. We are here to help and wish you only the best of luck in your purchase. A GTX 550 Ti sounds like a very good choice to me and EVGA has not failed me so far.

Good luck and keep us informed.

Thank You,

9

I have an Asus 210 silent running on openSUSE 11.4 64bit KDE 4.6.0 with the 295.49 driver. It works for graphics. Driver installation was simple.

10

Interesting !! Do you remember what procedure did you follow to install the drivers? I may try the drivers before I get the new card.

Thanks – Roger

11

I used the guide at SDB:NVIDIA the hard way - openSUSE

12

Well, I got the evga geforce gtx550ti, and it seems to work fine driving the monitor. Of course I ended up getting an updated power supply and upgrading my dsl connection to get reasonable video performance.

I did try and connect up the hdmi out to my TV, but it appears that there is no signal out of the hdmi?? On the asus 210 silent, the connection of the tv activated the hdmi port and it made it to the tv (although with no sound). Do I need to activate the HDMI output in some way?? I did look on the configure desktop-display and monitor-size and orientation, but all that I saw was the default (connected) monitor. With the asus, the hdmi did automatically appear as a second output?? Basically the same exact setup except for the graphics card (except I have run a system update, and who knows what I got…).

Is there some way to activate the hdmi output on the card or should it be automatic?? When I did look at the hardware monitor, it says that monprobe nvidia active, nouveau active: no, nvidiafb active : no. Seems like I am running the nvidia drivers, but I did not specifically load them (although added nvidia to my update sources).

Suggestions please

Regards – Roger

PS - would it be better to open a new thread on this, since it is only remotely related to this topic ??

13

I use the nvidia-settings utility to enable the second output. First, I run the application as root:

For KDE Alt-F2: kdesu /usr/bin/nvidia-settings

OR

For Gnome Alt-F2 gnomesu /usr/bin/nvidia-settings

Next I make sure the monitor or TV is turned on and set for the correct input. Then, I select **X Server Display Information, **in the left Column AND Press Detect Displays. I select the disabled display then for **Configuration **and select Twinview. Select the Apply button if you want both monitors working at the same time. Or, select the active monitor next, under configuration select disabled and then set apply. This method assumes you are switching between two monitors. If you set your TV to the correct input, then turn on your TV with it only connected to your computer, it should come up when you start your computer. However, the last time I did this switch, I had two monitors and once on the TV, I saved the configuration to the xorg.conf (an option in nvidia-settings) which seemed to work for me. nvidia-settings must be installed from YaST / Software / Software Management and search on nvidia.

Thank You,

14

Thanks for the info - I am making progress. Thanks for letting me pick your brain !! The hdmi has now been activated and I can see the screen on my tv. Two issues remain (aside from figuring out how to operate my hdmi wireless transmitter in a stable fashion - more work at the user manual probably…)

The image on the TV screen is a magnification of the monitor image - perhaps only 60% or so of the monitor image is projected on the screen (TV screen is full, but with the magnified image). Is this a result of using twinview clone? Would setting up the TV as a separate x screen resolve this??

Still no sound out of the hdmi connection. Not sure how to activate this, or do I need to configure alternate sound apps to feed sound in (supposedly the card already has on-board sound, and I was hoping that it would just work) ??

Thanks – Roger

15

Yes using Twinview will not allow the best resolution on one of the two monitors. So, first I enable the second monitor using Twinview. Next, I disable the first monitor. This second action allows the second monitor to run at its native resolution when used alone. If I am just switching temperally to a second monitor, I then reverse the procedure, first re-enabling the first monitor and then disabling the second. If I was looking at the second monitor and turned off the PC and then turned it back on with only the first, such swaps might create a desktop monitor setup that produces no image when your desktop is loaded, so be careful with the setup you shut down with.

Thank You,

16

Thanks for the suggestion. This sounds a bit risky if I make a mistake - as it is, I need to make a couple of configuration changes to make this happen (screen blanking) so I will take a look at all of the settings options to see if I can get the sizing correct. I also found a multiple monitors forum on the evga forums, and will ask there. I will post any progress here so maybe someone else can benefit…

Regards – Roger

17

Hello,

Well, I think your suggestion about the primary monitor is going to be the only solution. Based on my experimentation, It seems that everything is sized to the primary monitor and sort of cut to fit into the secondary. Have you seen any tutorial on the Nvidia linux drivers and control panel?? Probably better for me to become educated before I plunge in with both feet…

Thanks and regards – Roger

18

Here is a couple of Links of info from nVIDIA and Linux.

Nvidia Installer HOWTO for openSUSE users

NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver README and Installation Guide

Thank You,

19

Well, I’ve gotten to the point were I can get a good image on the TV with no problem (although there are a number of steps due to the wireless HDMI).

Sound still remains a problem, and it looks like some more reading is in order. Systems settings - multimedia - phonon - video settings seem to have no effect. The HDA Nvidia digital stereo (HDMI) is listed as a source, but even when I move it to preferred and apply - there is no effect (sound still coming from the pc speakers).

Regards – Roger

20

Unfortunately, sound is treated as a separate device from video meaning its solution is outside of your video selection even if they share the same cable. Normally, sounds are channeled to only one sound card or chipset and in the past I might use a single sound card with an analog and digital output which I send to two different devices like my computer speakers and to the TV. You normally must use the Phonon setup to select **Off **for the internal sound leaving the video card sound to take over then. In KDE the selection would be:

menu / Configure Desktop / Hardware Group / Multimedia / Phonon (on Left) / Audio Hardware Setup tab / Sound Card and select the Profile of Off for Internal Sound and HDMI Digital Audio for the TV connection.

See if this matches up to what you are seeing.

Thank You,