Dell X1300 PCI-E (RV516) flickering and random blanking.

[nyc_paramedic]

My Sapphire x1300 DVI PC-E video card died recently and I replaced it with a OEM Dell x1300 single port DVI card that I purchased new. The Sapphire was a RV515 and the Dell reads as a RV516. I'm using the latest Debian unstable with standard Debian kernel 2.6.30. Resolution is 1600x1200 on an IBM L200p flat panel. DVI with no adapters.

There is no screen corruption in console mode or when booting the machine. When I startx, I get random screen blanking. I also notice what I can only describe as random red, green, and blue "sparkling" on any background that is black. It's most noticeable on the black background of an X terminal.

I'm using this with the open source radeon driver. I tried using the radeonhd driver but it won't start in a resolution above 1024x768 for some reason. Trying to use Xrandr results in an error stating that the monitor can't siplay greater than 1300(ish) by 800(ish).

Any ideas? Anybody see this kind of behavior before? Are the RV515 and 516 chips that different? I would like to continue using the radeon driver as it afforded me excellent 2D performance.

I don't have any logs to post now as I am stuck on ambulance for the next 14 hours. Just ask if you want a specific log. Any help would be appreciated.

[agd5f]

Sounds like display fifo issues. This was implemented for radeon (xf86-video-ati) in git master, but is not yet available in 6.12.4 and previous releases. I suggest trying git master and if you continue to have problems try:
Option "DisplayPriority" "HIGH"
This option only works for your card on git master.

[nyc_paramedic]

Sounds like display fifo issues. This was implemented for radeon (xf86-video-ati) in git master, but is not yet available in 6.12.4 and previous releases. I suggest trying git master and if you continue to have problems try:
Option "DisplayPriority" "HIGH"
This option only works for your card on git master.

Thanks for the prompt reply. I've never used git before, so maybe I'll see if there is a package in Debian experimental.

Thanks again.

[nyc_paramedic]

Well, I did get the radeonhd driver working, I had to apt-get xserver-xorg-video-ati, even though I had xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd installed. I thought the -ati driver was just a wrapper. Anyway...

X comes up in 1600x1200 and the 2D acceleration seem much snappier, but I do get occasional lockups after watching flash videos in Firefox 3.5. Mostly when returning back from full screen video. I can still move the mouse cursor but it seems very sluggish. I can't switch virtual terminals either. I can ssh and kill X.

Another note: After installing xserver-xorg-video-ati I though I'd give the radeon driver another try. So I vim xorg.conf, change the driver, restart X, and I still have the same flickering. Switching back to radeonhd and X only starts at 1024x768. Can't increase the resolution to 1600x1200 as xrandr complains that the mode is not available. I had to reboot the machine to get 1600x1200.

Strange, eh? Any ideas?

Should I stick with radeonhd on this card?

[agd5f]

radeon and ati are the same driver; ati is just a wrapper for the radeon, r128, and mach64 drivers. radeonhd is a different driver.

[nyc_paramedic]

radeon and ati are the same driver; ati is just a wrapper for the radeon, r128, and mach64 drivers. radeonhd is a different driver.

Yup, I know. That's why I thought it was strange that X would not start at 1600x1200 until I install the ati package.

Any ideas on the lockups after watching a flash video?