HOWTO:Fix geforce 4 420 Go black screen problem

[hesicong2006]

I've been having trouble with my laptop geforce 4 420Go video card on NVIDIA driver. The problem, like most other 420Go users, is the BLANK SCREEN problem.
The problem appear on my BENQ Joybook 3000 is like this:
After I installed the restricted driver and reboot , it's blank screen when I login but I can hear the sound. I type my user and password, it seems OK and login. But I still get blank screen.
I can get to the terminal when I press CTRL+ALT+F1 and I can switch back again by pressing CTRL+ALT+F7.
I make sure that Xserver and the video driver are both working fine, but video driver may not initialized the LCD display!
So I google again and I found this article: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s....20/+bug/96430
This is a bug report about this problem. I read about this L--O--N--G discussion and near the bottom of the article, I see jdriessen( said on 2007-04-12) told us :
"in response to my previous post
those of you having similar problems if you have a Geforce4 420 Go 32MB.
the 9631 driver is looking for a CRT monitor and not and LCD (those of you having the problem on LCD monitors)
to fix this:
edit your xorg.conf
go to Section "Screen"
below defaultdepth, add: Option "UseDisplayDevice" "UFP-0"
this should fix the blank screen issue on LCD displays."

I tried it ,but it not work!
And again, very lucky, I googled for keyword ""UseDisplayDevice" I found some discussion about it. In a Chinese forum, some one managed to let even Geforce 2 MX to work with beryl!
He said add Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP" to xorg.conf and reboot.

I tried it, YEAH! It works! NVIDIA logo appears when I before my login(I set Option "NoLogo" "False"), and compiz in ubuntu 7.04 works very well!!!!

So, if you can hear the login sound, if you use 96.31 driver, if you use ubuntu 7.04

TRY ADD
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP" or
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP-0"
to help this NVIDIA Driver find your first LCD display!

[Dr_Deadmeat]

Thank you very much! I owe you one for this fix =)

[hesicong2006]

Did you try this and your laptop worked?

[Dr_Deadmeat]

Yes, but whenever I reboot my computer my X-server wont start and I get a max resolution wont go higher than 800x600 with 50hz, but I am working on that issue now =P

[markthecarp]

I've been having just terrible luck getting nVidia 9631 and previous versions working with this chipset.

My machine: Toshiba Satellite 1415 S173; nVidia GeForce4 420 Go 16M VRAM. I found _a solution here...
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=84773

I now have 1024x768; glxgears reports 295 fps.

hopefully helpful

-mark
now to some 3d desktop goodness...

[Dr_Deadmeat]

Thank you very much... It now works flawlessy (I think. I havent rebooted my computer yet).
At any rate should this fix be posted on the other threads about resolution troubles and it might help other people too...

Thank you again...

[markthecarp]

I think yes. I've had this laptop for two years; been using Linux since '99; this is the best I've ever been able to get the graphics setup.

Compiz is locking it up but that's another issue.

-mark

[marioquark]

and how about the NOT FOUND nvidia kernel module?
what can i do?

[grolschie]

I have a Toshiba Satellite 2410 with the same issue with my Geforce4 420 Go. After installing Ubuntu Feisty Fawn and installing the Restricted Drivers, I was greeted with a black screen (but could hear the startup sounds, etc).

I then added the following line to the Device section of my xorg.conf:
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"

However the screen was set to 800x600@50hz no matter what I did. The solutions here didn't work for me. I solved it here: http://forums.computers.toshiba-europe.com/jive3/thread.jspa?threadID=19664

Basically here is what I did:

1). I added the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/options:
options nvidia NVreg_SoftEDIDs=0 NVreg_Mobile=1 NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1 NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1

2). Downloaded this file to /etc/X11 folder:
http://core.syscall.org/linux/Toshiba_s_1410.bin

3). Add the following line to the Monitor section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-0:/usr/lib/Toshiba_s_1410.bin"

I hope that this helps somebody.

[mayamaniac]

Thank you hesicong2006, I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 with a Geforce 440 64M. I had the black screen problem after installing the nvidia driver with Envy.

I used the Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP-0" line and that works.