[ubuntu-uk] graphics problem on Ubuntu 8.04 Dell laptop

[Liam Proven]

2009/1/2 David King <linuxman at avoura.com>:
> My girlfriend is running Ubuntu 8.04 on her Dell Inspiron 1525
> (preinstalled), but had a few graphics issues recently.
> I was playing a game (Penguin Planet Racer) full screen and it crashed
> the laptop, could not get out of it other than a hard reboot.
> I disabled some of the Compiz effects, in case that was overloading the
> graphics chip, which I think is an Intel chip.
>
> Today she said she booted it as normal, and then when she logged in,
> there were various small lines on the screen that were never there before.
>
> Is this likely to be a software issue or a hardware problem?
>
> David

As others have said, try a live CD. Ideally something totally
non-Ubuntu, such as Knoppix.

Also, try connecting it to an external screen.

If it still shows lines or other display corruption, it's a hardware issue.

It's hard to see how a game could cause hardware problems, but I've
seen a couple of laptops recently with fried graphics chips. This
means a new main board, basically - an expensive repair.

I can only imagine that the cooling on the GPU or the Northbridge (if
it has chipset-integrated graphics) might have been inadequate -
perhaps a fan clogged with dust or fluff. In normal desktop use, it
only runs in 2D and never gets loaded. But when running a 3D game for
a while, it would be running flat out, overheat and possibly cook
itself.


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