10.04 Live CD attempt; Out of Scan Range: Dell P991

[rpoupore]

Hi, I'm a newbie to Ubuntu and Linux, though I started in DOS in 1986. I'm seeking help and I've found other discussions on other forums that have a pattern similarity with Dell monitors being the key. [It would be great to find an alternate driver for the NVIDIA software].

I'm using an old Compaq Presario running Windows XP Media Center Edition with all the updates from MS. I'm trying to get my feet wet with Linux to use this old PC as a file/print server on our home network (our HP officejet 6110xi printer/scanner/fax is not network adaptable w/o a print server).

So I'm trying out the Live CD for Ubuntu 10.04. After burning the Desktop edition 5 different times, I've finally got something that doesn't seem to crash, BUT unless I hit the Ctl (and possible Ctl-Alt keys), I go straight to "Monitor is working OUT OF SCAN RANGE" message. The times I've hit Ctl or Ctl-Alt, I get a menu for options. I can see the messages in all of these choices, and I've even edited the "quiet[or 'quick'] splash" to read vga=771 (i think that's it, not sure of the number I was using Thursday and Friday). No matter what I do, I end up at the Out of Scan Range message.

I've changed the refresh rate and resolution, but none of these help. I'm leery of trying to install Ubuntu, without knowing I will be able to see anything if I can't get past the monitor problem. I don't know how to edit the monitor settings on the CD (...) or where/how to mod them in memory.

The monitor is Dell P991 on NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE.

I would love to get past this problem -- any suggestions? THANKS in advance!

[cariboo]

The 6150se will work quite well once you have Ubuntu installed. I have the same chip set on a couple of motherboards. I found you have to start in safe graphics mode. To do this, press any key when you see the screen with the Man and keyboard at the bottom. Once you have a menu, press F6 and select nomodset, you can then select which ever boot method you want, and you should boot to a desktop.

[rpoupore]

Wow! Thanks, cariboo907!

I'll try to figure out how to close this and open another about my Linksys UBS adapter.

Very cool and thanks for fast and easy to understand response!
Ralph