Challenging and expensive weekend

[Robert N. Eaton]

Last Thursday night, before putting my computer to bed, things worked 
ok. I checked my email and played a coupe of rounds of Solitaire.  
Friday morning, however, the monitor wouldn't turn on. I tried the 
on/off switch, I unplugged and replugged the power cord, both at the 
power strip, and at the back of the monitor. Nothing. The old monitor, 
an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 400 (17 Inch) wasn't there any more. Oh. 
four letter word!

I went to Fry's and purchased a View Sonic VA2012wb. It kept complaining 
that it should be at 1680X1050 resolution for best results. My original 
video card, I forget who made it, but it was basically an NVidia 128 mb 
AGP, couldn't drive it to that resolution in either WinXP or Linux. I 
returned to Fry's and brought back an ATI Radeon  1300 series which I 
spent the rest of Friday trying to find and install drivers to make 
work. No joy.

Saturday I returned the ATI card for a GeForce 6600oc, an NVidia AGP 
256mb card. It plays much better with Linux (though not perfectly.)  In 
WinXP the card drives the monitor to its native resolution. I find, 
however, that I have to "play turtle," that is to say, I have to crane 
my neck out, and peer nearsightedly at the screen.  Uncomfortable, after 
a bit. Other resolutions seem to give slightly elliptical circles, and 
squares become rectangles (yes, yes, I know squares are rectangles, but 
they become stretched or compressed, so you know what I mean.)

I assume that the card is using is using the generic nv driver.  How can 
I check on that. Would another driver give me a better solution to the 
aspect ratio problem? If so, where would I obtain it, and how does one 
install a new video driver?

Cheers,

Bob Eaton

P.S. This morning, I took the Iiyama monitor to my favorite computer 
geek, and the @#$%^& thing worked perfectly. More, and more colorful, 
four letter words.

I now have some things to contribute to the Linux community: A 
reasonably good generic NVidia card, a DLink ethernet card, a Motorola 
Surfboard sb5120 cable modem (with power source),and a Trendnet 
TW100-BRF114U firewall router and print server (also with power 
source).  These I will donate.  The monitor, however, for which I no 
longer have house room, goes to the highest bidder. Contact me privately 
if interested.

RNE