K8S-MX Display problems, be warned

[validem]

System built using a Sempron 2800+ and an Acer 1714 LCD at 1280x1024,
connected to the on-board
SIS graphics. The screen blanks out for about 3 seconds at seemingly
random intervals. It will happen
more frequently at one time than another. It does not seem to be
connected to any particular activity.
During the period of blanking sound will continue via the screen mounted
speakers. The blanking
sequence replicates what happens when the display resets when changing a
display property.
There seem to be a number of people who have experienced this problem.

I sent in a proper Tech query to ASUS and got the following reply:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sir ,i think that is a compatible issue with onboard video card and
your LCD monitor.

some monitor has this problem ,some does not .

i suggest you ,

you can add a AGP video card to connect your monitor ,then you will not
have such problems.

you can change a monitor .

you can change the board to another model with the vendor if vendor
agree that .
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I think that means:

'yeah, you have a problem. Some do, some don't, but you have and we
don't really know why and don't really give a toss, so tough shit'

Like most I bought this motherboard to avoid the cost of a separate
video card. Having been stuffed it looks like I have to spend another
50%-100% of the M'board cost to make it work properly.

 

[Paul]

System built using a Sempron 2800+ and an Acer 1714 LCD at 1280x1024,
connected to the on-board SIS graphics. The screen blanks out for
about 3 seconds at seemingly random intervals. It will happen
more frequently at one time than another. It does not seem to be
connected to any particular activity. During the period of blanking
sound will continue via the screen mounted speakers. The blanking
sequence replicates what happens when the display resets when
changing a display property. There seem to be a number of people
who have experienced this problem.

<<snip>>

Have you tried driver(s) from the SIS site ? Their graphics
driver is currently at 3.70 . Uninstall the old ones before
using the new ones. (Keep your old installers, of course, in
case the new ones are worse )

WinXP AGP driver (try driver3.sis.com if these are slow)
http://driver2.sis.com/agp/agp121.zip

WinXP Graphics driver
http://driver2.sis.com/graphic/igp/uniVGA3/uvga3_370.zip

Have you checked the Event Viewer, for error messages ?

Does the SIS architecture have the notion of "VPU recover" ?
If there is such a thing, disable it.

There was a problem with graphics resolution, where if the
user wanted to use 1280x1024, the screen went to 1024x768 and
the user could "pan" within a 1280x1024 space. Perhaps the
symptoms you are seeing, correlate with where the mouse
is on the screen (the theory being, the driver tracks mouse
position, in case there is a need to "pan" in virtual space).

Is the chipset running cool, or is it overheated ?

The forum here seems suspiciously empty. Not one complaint
about video probs. Did they erase some posts or something ?
There should be complaints about the early resolution setting
problem in here.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/bbs.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=K8S-MX

The FAQ only mentions the resolution problem (on page 2)

http://support.asus.com.tw/faq/faq_...&keyword=k8s-mx&search_type=0&SLanguage=en-us

Just a few ideas,
Paul

 

[validem]

<<snip>>

Have you tried driver(s) from the SIS site ? Their graphics
driver is currently at 3.70 . Uninstall the old ones before
using the new ones. (Keep your old installers, of course, in
case the new ones are worse )

WinXP AGP driver (try driver3.sis.com if these are slow)
http://driver2.sis.com/agp/agp121.zip

WinXP Graphics driver
http://driver2.sis.com/graphic/igp/uniVGA3/uvga3_370.zip

Have you checked the Event Viewer, for error messages ?

Does the SIS architecture have the notion of "VPU recover" ?
If there is such a thing, disable it.

There was a problem with graphics resolution, where if the
user wanted to use 1280x1024, the screen went to 1024x768 and
the user could "pan" within a 1280x1024 space. Perhaps the
symptoms you are seeing, correlate with where the mouse
is on the screen (the theory being, the driver tracks mouse
position, in case there is a need to "pan" in virtual space).

Is the chipset running cool, or is it overheated ?

The forum here seems suspiciously empty. Not one complaint
about video probs. Did they erase some posts or something ?
There should be complaints about the early resolution setting
problem in here.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/bbs.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=K8S-MX

The FAQ only mentions the resolution problem (on page 2)

http://support.asus.com.tw/faq/faq_...&keyword=k8s-mx&search_type=0&SLanguage=en-us

Just a few ideas,
Paul

Thanks for that Paul. Yes I and others with the problem have tried the
3.70 driver and it doesn't improve the problem in either XP or ME which
is what I use. There is a workaround for the resolution problem in the
tech FAQ for XP, I seem to have overcome that with the earlier driver. I
think that was as a result of installing the ACER display driver after
setting up.

All these ancilliary probs make it much more difficult to try solutions
to the blanking prob.

The reply I got from ASUS regarding the blanking seems to suggest they
know the problem exists for some monitors, but don't have an answer. The
simplest soltion seem to be adding an AGP card. Not very satisfactory if
you have ended up in that situation.

Alan

 

[Paul]

Thanks for that Paul. Yes I and others with the problem have tried the
3.70 driver and it doesn't improve the problem in either XP or ME which
is what I use. There is a workaround for the resolution problem in the
tech FAQ for XP, I seem to have overcome that with the earlier driver. I
think that was as a result of installing the ACER display driver after
setting up.

All these ancilliary probs make it much more difficult to try solutions
to the blanking prob.

The reply I got from ASUS regarding the blanking seems to suggest they
know the problem exists for some monitors, but don't have an answer. The
simplest soltion seem to be adding an AGP card. Not very satisfactory if
you have ended up in that situation.

Alan

A blank display could be caused by a total loss of video signals
from the motherboard.

Or, a blank display could be caused by the monitor's detection
of multisync horizontal or vertical frequency change.

Multisync monitors memorize settings for the popular resolutions
plus in the case of CRTs, have the capability to handle non
standard resolutions as well (my old CRT could do that). It
would seem they measure the vertical and horizontal frequency,
to determine what resolution is being used. The OSD (on screen
display) hardware, has vertical and horizontal offset settings
stored in its memory, and when a particular set of frequencies
are recognized coming from the computer, the monitor can apply
the offsets, so the display looks centered.

Anything which triggers that circuit, to have detected a resolution
change, could cause the blanking of the screen. You would need
a way to tap into the some kind of diagnostic signal from the
OSD, to be able to tell what it is doing.

My comments above are not intended to help you, as an end user,
to find a solution. But, what it suggests to me, is 10 minutes
spent in the lab with an oscilloscope, should tell Asus all they
need to know about this problem. Perhaps the question for
Asus, is whether in fact it can be fixed or not.

If this is yet another issue with the driver for the video
display, Asus will have to give the details to SIS, and then
it may take SIS a while to fix the problem. That is a problem
with just about anything broken on a computer - multiple companies
can be involved, and that slows down the speed of finding
a solution (especially when there is a lot of finger pointing
going on).

Paul