Do laptop video cards die?

[dj_segfault]

SO I went over to my laptop a few hours ago, and the screen was blank
and unresponsive.  That usually means my last interaction was on the
second screen (on my TV with DB15 input), so I blindly type in the
password, and nothing.
Turn on the TV, and no signal.
C-A-Backspace, and nothing.
C-A-Del, and nothing.
Hard power down (hold down power button for 4 seconds)
Power up again, and nothing on screen.  Not even during BIOS or GRUB.
Panic excessively, and nothing.

However, being Linux, I try to ssh in from another box, and a small tear
of joy trickles down my cheek.  I start backing up the entire laptop to
an external USB hard drive (still going).

I noticed the following in Xorg.o.log:

--------------------------------------------------------------
(**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "TwinView" "0"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "MetaModes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling RENDER acceleration
(II) NVIDIA(0): Support for GLX with the Damage and Composite X
extensions is
(II) NVIDIA(0):     enabled.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device PCI:1:0:0.
(EE) NVIDIA(0):     Please see the COMMON PROBLEMS section in the README for
(EE) NVIDIA(0):     additional information.
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device!
(**) NVIDIA(1): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) NVIDIA(1): RGB weight 888
(==) NVIDIA(1): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) NVIDIA(1): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(**) NVIDIA(1): Option "TwinView" "0"
(**) NVIDIA(1): Option "MetaModes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
(**) NVIDIA(1): Enabling RENDER acceleration
(EE) NVIDIA(1): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device PCI:1:0:0.
(EE) NVIDIA(1):     Please see the COMMON PROBLEMS section in the README for
(EE) NVIDIA(1):     additional information.
(EE) NVIDIA(1): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device!
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(II) UnloadModule: "wfb"
(II) UnloadModule: "fb"
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(II) UnloadModule: "wfb"
(II) UnloadModule: "fb"
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
Fatal server error:
no screens found
--------------------------------------------------------------

You can see the full log at
http://www.thekramers.net/tmp/Xorg.0.log

So I'm pretty sure I'm totally screwed, but I want to bounce my
assumptions off you to see if they're panic-derived or reality-derived

The problem is most likely the video card and not the LCD panel or
backlight, because:
- I don't see anything on BIOS or GRUB
- I don't see anything on the TV when connected to the external monitor
jack (and I tried another regular LCD monitor, too).

There's a place close to me (Waltham) in Newton called CTS computers.  I
used to buy a lot of stuff there back when I built my own frankenboxes a
few times a year, but I don't know if they do laptops.  Any other
suggestions near Waltham?

Thanks.
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[dj_segfault]

David Kramer wrote:

> SO I went over to my laptop a few hours ago, and the screen was blank
> and unresponsive.  That usually means my last interaction was on the
> second screen (on my TV with DB15 input), so I blindly type in the
> password, and nothing.
> Turn on the TV, and no signal.
> C-A-Backspace, and nothing.
> C-A-Del, and nothing.
> Hard power down (hold down power button for 4 seconds)
> Power up again, and nothing on screen.  Not even during BIOS or GRUB.
> Panic excessively, and nothing.

I neglected to mention (in my panic) that this is a Dell D820 running
Ubuntu 9.04.

After the cp -a finishes, I'm going to try to edit my Grub to default to
Windows.  Since I don't see the BIOS screen I can't imagine Windows will
work, but at least if I bring it in to repair somewhere, it will be
easier for them.
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[dj_segfault]

David Kramer wrote:

> David Kramer wrote:
>> SO I went over to my laptop a few hours ago, and the screen was blank
>> and unresponsive.  That usually means my last interaction was on the
>> second screen (on my TV with DB15 input), so I blindly type in the
>> password, and nothing.
>> Turn on the TV, and no signal.
>> C-A-Backspace, and nothing.
>> C-A-Del, and nothing.
>> Hard power down (hold down power button for 4 seconds)
>> Power up again, and nothing on screen.  Not even during BIOS or GRUB.
>> Panic excessively, and nothing.

OK, so I just ended a chat session with Dell (yes, it's 3:15AM).  It's
still under warranty, but it's gonna take about two weeks all-told.

I guess tomorrow night I'll bring my T42 to the meeting and hope someone
  can help me get mythfrontend working on it.  I don't want to hijack my
own thread, so I'll start a new one after a few hours of sleep.

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[Dan Ritter-2]

On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 03:17:16AM -0400, David Kramer wrote:

> David Kramer wrote:
> > David Kramer wrote:
> >> SO I went over to my laptop a few hours ago, and the screen was blank
> >> and unresponsive.  That usually means my last interaction was on the
> >> second screen (on my TV with DB15 input), so I blindly type in the
> >> password, and nothing.
> >> Turn on the TV, and no signal.
> >> C-A-Backspace, and nothing.
> >> C-A-Del, and nothing.
> >> Hard power down (hold down power button for 4 seconds)
> >> Power up again, and nothing on screen.  Not even during BIOS or GRUB.
> >> Panic excessively, and nothing.
>
> OK, so I just ended a chat session with Dell (yes, it's 3:15AM).  It's
> still under warranty, but it's gonna take about two weeks all-told.

Remember to do a complete backup before you send it off. Sure,
there's no reason for them to touch the hard disk... that just
means that if they do so, it will be more spectacularly damaging
than if they were supposed to fix it.

-dsr-


--
http://tao.merseine.nu/~dsr/eula.html is hereby incorporated by reference.
You can't defend freedom by getting rid of it.
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[dj_segfault]

Dan Ritter wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 03:17:16AM -0400, David Kramer wrote:
>> David Kramer wrote:
>>> David Kramer wrote:
>>>> SO I went over to my laptop a few hours ago, and the screen was blank
>>>> and unresponsive.  That usually means my last interaction was on the
>>>> second screen (on my TV with DB15 input), so I blindly type in the
>>>> password, and nothing.
>>>> Turn on the TV, and no signal.
>>>> C-A-Backspace, and nothing.
>>>> C-A-Del, and nothing.
>>>> Hard power down (hold down power button for 4 seconds)
>>>> Power up again, and nothing on screen.  Not even during BIOS or GRUB.
>>>> Panic excessively, and nothing.
>> OK, so I just ended a chat session with Dell (yes, it's 3:15AM).  It's
>> still under warranty, but it's gonna take about two weeks all-told.
>
> Remember to do a complete backup before you send it off. Sure,
> there's no reason for them to touch the hard disk... that just
> means that if they do so, it will be more spectacularly damaging
> than if they were supposed to fix it.

Yup, that's what the "cp -a" from root was all about.  Already done.

I think I'll remove some of the more sensitive files, but I can't
imagine they'll spend the time to hack into the Linux side (even though
it would only take about 20 minutes).


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[Matthew Gillen]

On 10/21/2009 08:31 AM, David Kramer wrote:
> I think I'll remove some of the more sensitive files, but I can't
> imagine they'll spend the time to hack into the Linux side (even though
> it would only take about 20 minutes).

In somewhat related news, I had to do a fresh install on my laptop recently,
and took the dive with the encrypted root filesystem option in the Fedora11
installer.  Works beautifully so far.  I haven't noticed it becoming sluggish,
which what I was primarily afraid of.

Matt

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