Moving from nVidia to Intel on-board - some notable differences

[oshunluvr]

I've been having some odd problems over that last several months. Every so often - sometimes several times every day, sometimes weeks go by - the monitor would blank out off-and-on repeatedly every few seconds. Most of the time, pulling the power cord or video cable from the monitor, counting to five, and plugging it back in would make it go away for some time - sometimes only minutes but sometimes days or weeks. I've never really had a handle on the root cause or a permanent solution. Yesterday it was frustratingly frequent. I've also been having a couple other odd issues (random lockups and initramfs failures at reboot) that I am unsure about if they are hardware or software related. This morning, my computer would not power on, it would cycle on and off for a minute or two then stop.

Since I was already having video problems, I removed my nVidia card, pulled an HDMI cable out of the box of wires (I was using Display Port with the nVidia card) and plugged it in, and the computer fired right up. The proof in the pudding is still not evident but, as of right now, all seems normal. I'm hopeful all the problems were related to the video card.

Right away a couple of differences:
Apparently, since I am not able to use the Display Port, the refresh rate is set at 30hz vs. 75hz. I will probably not notice the refresh rate until I do some gaming. The few desktop effects I use seem to have no ill effects. I'm curious where the rate limitation is restricted. The monitor is HDMI 2.0 and the built-in video is Intel 530 which should support 60hz. Maybe I just need to change a setting somewhere. The resolution is 3840x1600 (WQHD+) and my understanding is HDMI will support a max of 60hz at this resolution.

The desktop fonts are obviously, but only slightly smaller. I increased the font one point and now it's slightly larger than before. Not sure if this is related to refresh rates or cable/connection type or video driver. I can live with either, it will just take a little time to get used to.

The larger issues are what was the root cause of the screen blanking and possibly the lock-up and initramfs issues? I will be interesting to see if any or all the problems go away, and if they do, do I just stick with Intel video and forgo replacing the card?

Also, if anyone has a suggestion on how to bump the refresh back up or other tips, I'll listen. I've been an nVidia user for decades and have little experience fine-tuning Intel graphics.

[claydoh]

Have you removed the nvidia-created xorg.conf, or related files? Assuming it still creates one these days.
This got me when I removed an Nvidia card when I decided to throw it out the window, and I hadn't removed the drivers or anything. Deleting the xorg.conf allowed me to get a good resolution, not sure I ever checked the refresh rate. But the automatic configuration worked as expected as far as I recall.

Intel seldom if ever needs any tweaking or tuning, at least on relatively recent iterations, iirc.

[oshunluvr]

No xorg edits on this system. I did discover missing Intel firmware when I rebuilt initramfs after purging the nvidia drivers, but it didn't seem to cause a problem. Updated the firmware anyway.

Had another lockup during a transcoding attempt. I think it's heat related. My temps soar when I start a video conversion. Not sure what to do about that.

[claydoh]

I thought that the Nvidia driver install set up a basic xorg.conf file, which normally does not exist. Maybe I had one from using Nvidia's GUI config tool.

[oshunluvr]

No longer is an xorg.conf created by default. You, or some tool, have to make one if you want it. The "new" way is to create sections in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ or /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

[woodsmoke]

Hi
Your post mimics one that I made a few years ago, now buried in the dungeon about when I purchased a MOBO with Intel Graphics.

I has always used NVIDIA when possible as was familiar with how to handle it and have about, maybe... fifteen cards going back to I'm ginking 2010 maybe?

Unfortrunately I always wanted to build an "an out of the case, hang on the walll" computer and git one that took cards and put in an NVIDA but...since it how had NO CASE BACK it was just "hanging there horizontally with no support except the slot so I put an "outboard hanger" on it but it failed a few weeks later and the slot disengaged from the board.

So, I got an INTEL mother board with ann onboard INTEL video.

It has performed flawlessly for showing DVDs , the internet , all of the Linux games available, and some widblows games using WINE.

I agreee about the HDMI showing the text as "smaller but finer" on a regular monitor this is VERY HARSH to view but fot the large screen t.v. it woks fine

The display is 1920 x 1080.
The refres rate is auto and the display is scaled.

When I changed EITHER of those it literally blew up the display I could not work with it AT ALL...nada zip.

Fortunately it had not hit "apply| and shut down and, because I always set things to "start with new session" everything was ok when it powered back up so;...If i do another INTEL card i will NOT fiddle with anything!

So, I can recognize almost everything that you posted EXCEPT FOR...the "heating"...

That to me, since, i'm just an old hardware kinda guy says that there are OTHER things wrong with the mobo itself. I know that it is usually a situation of "WAKAMOLE" but it might be the better part of valour to actually take it to a computer shoppe that has a good tech not one that is going to rip you off with "by the hour charges" to see if the person can find another component that is "showing temperature distress" SINCE... you HAVE found that it occurs when you are doing "video conversions" which is very CPU intensive...

i know that this may sound stupid but it may literally be that the "white paste" under the CPU is "dry" and needs to be refreshed. I have done that but always felt "ill at ease" and when I was donating computers usually took it to a local shop to just replace the white paste.

Don't know if I have helped much but if I can offer other suggestions, just holler.

woodsmoke

Here is a link to the post I made here at the forum about my lastest bestest home build, and surprisingly, even though Photobucket keeps letting me ont use it without purchasing an intermediate account the picture of the build is

Photobucket had put a banner over the image so...
DO NOT CLICK THE PIC it is LOOKING FOR YOUR E-MAIL AND AT WHO IS viewing my stuff to force me to purchase a bit hosting account but you can get an idea of the INTEL board.

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...hlight=lastest

[oshunluvr]

Thanks haventseenyouhereinawhilesmoke,

Sounds like the HDMI vs DP noticeable differences are par for the course. Not deal breakers anyway except for the refresh speed. I have vaguely notice small artifacts when enabling some of the more tasking desktop effects like wobbly windows - but not consistently. The bigger question that needs to be answered is what is the root cause of the blanking screen? Since I pulled the video card I haven't seen it occur, but I'm also using a different input and a different refresh rate. Until I return to a video connection that uses the DP connection, I may never know if it's the monitor or video card that caused the issue.

At the same time as this occurred, I also installed KDEneon 20.04 Unstable to bare metal just to see where it was and to start to configure it to my liking. This also gives me a chance to test the "failed initramfs" to see if it's an install issue and to also test the heat issue. Last night I was able to replicate the heat issue exactly as it occurs when using 18.04 so I can say it's not the OS causing that.

As far as the PC shop recommendation, I live in a fairly small town. If there even was a shop more capable than I am myself, they wouldn't be open right now, nor would the money be spent wisely. What I must do is disassemble my rig, review and re-do the cooling system (water cooled), and see if I can make it a little more efficient. It may simply be a matter of the smaller die CPUs not being as resilient as the older, larger chips.

I have seen aging CPUs become more sensitive to heat before, just not as quickly as this i7 appears to be. My Q6600 (B0) was at least 5 years old or so before I had to dial back the overclock from 3.5Ghz back to 3, then eventually it's native 2.4Ghz until I finally replaced it with my current i7-6700K. The size difference is eminence in silicon terms; 65nm vs. 14nm. Actually, now that I think about it, my current i7 is about 5 years old now too.

Anyway, I still have some thing to try out before I have to invest money in it.