8.10 AM64: Screen flickers - Geforce 8100

[flameproof]

A new PC, new problems.

I just installed 8.10 AM64 an this hardware:

GF8100VM-M3 (AMD cpu, on board Geforce 8100 video)

The installation started with a nice 1280x1024 screen and no NVidia drivers installed. Everything looked ok, but scrolling in Firefox is painfully slow. No other problems.

When I use the 173 or 177 drivers (either through panel, or NVidia d/l NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-177.82-pgk2.run) and then restart I get a a desktop that flickers mostly, but not always. If I have mainly white pages the screen will be stable. Scrolling is the same slow speed as before though.

Effects are OFF, compiz is off and I tried a few this and that to no avail.

Most problem screens here seem not to flicker.

Any idea?

hwinfo --gfxcard

08: PCI 200.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)             
  [Created at pci.310]
  UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_10de_84f
  Unique ID: B35A.ppIr_8CAUY8
  Parent ID: gZD2.HCX1Semm9+1
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0b.0/0000:02:00.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "nVidia VGA compatible controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x10de "nVidia Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x084f 
  SubVendor: pci 0x1019 "Elitegroup Computer Systems"
  SubDevice: pci 0x2666 
  Revision: 0xa2
  Memory Range: 0xfd000000-0xfdffffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xdfffffff (rw,prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xce000000-0xcfffffff (rw,prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0xec00-0xec7f (rw)
  Memory Range: 0xfebe0000-0xfebfffff (ro,prefetchable,disabled)
  IRQ: 10 (no events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v000010DEd0000084Fsv00001019sd00002666bc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    Driver Status: nvidia is not active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe nvidia"
  Driver Info #1:
    Driver Status: nvidiafb is not active
    Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe nvidiafb"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
  Attached to: #16 (PCI bridge)

Primary display adapter: #8

[thadacto]

I've just upgraded from 7.10 to 8.04 and had the same problem but I changed the refresh rate to 75. It seems that the upgrade changed it to 60. Now I have the problem that I can't get a screen resolution better than 640x480!!!
My eyesight's not that bad.

[flameproof]

I installed 8.10 32bit and have the same problem after installing the 177 driver. When I set the screen to 800x600 then it's fine. But everything above that flickers like mad. So it's not related to AM64 only.

I am downloading now OpenSuse which I used before and which had no graphic problem.

[anewguy]

Flicker is almost always a refresh rate problem. Find the specs for your monitor and specify in the xorg.conf file and you should see an improvement.

dave

[alwayshere]

change theme to anyone but human as it dont like nvidia cards

try compiz switch to turn compiz off/on as it may be making trouble

[flameproof]

After plenty of testing with Ubuntu 8.10 32 + 64, OpenSuse 11.0 32+64, 11.1 32 I have a conclusion:

nvidia 8100 is NOT suitable for any form of Linux with a screen. Avoid anything with geforce 8100! If you have a 8100 - give up now!

Finally I got a separate geforce 8400 (~US$30) for my PC and it works out of the box perfectly - even without installing any of the special 173 or 177 drivers!

No flicker, 24b colors, 1280 x 1024, the "goat" Background, full screen effects - all work out of the box.

[calethix]

I was having problems similar to this although I'm not sure if it was exactly the same.

I recently upgraded my motherboard and was using the onboard geforce 8100. The screen didn't flicker at all just sitting there but then I noticed scrolling through web pages was very choppy and watching video (e.g. youtube but especially on ign videos) was horrendous. It flickered really bad and would freeze every few seconds.

This was using the 177 drivers. Interestingly enough, while I was testing different things, I ended up in safe graphics mode a few times. Video performance was actually much better than with the nvidia 177 drivers.

I grabbed the 180.29 drivers from nvidia's web site and gave those a shot but upon rebooting, I received an error message that said it couldn't load module Type1 and then proceeded to start in safe graphics mode.

I then uninstalled the 180.29 drivers, rebooted and went back to the 177 drivers. After that, I was back to where I started: video was working but the performance was terrible.

Next, I opened up a console again, and ran '/etc/init.d/gdm stop' to kill X. I ran the nvidia 180.29 installer again but this time chose the option to leave my xorg.conf file alone and made the updates manually.
- replaced Driver "nv" with Driver "nvidia"
- changed the Module section to read as follows
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Rebooted and so far, I'm not having any problems.

Anyway, I stumbled across this thread while trying to figure out my problem. Hope it helps someone.