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SC1430 boots without text mode display, can display when linux boots.
Something has happened to my SC1430.
Was trying to get into the bios to adjust settings, except reboot does show BIOS spash, or anythings.
Yet when GRUB starts up, using a graphics mode, that shows up, and it can go all the way into Linux.
When I boot, it does much of what usually went on, except the monitor is black. No blinking cursor. Just black. Diagnostic LEDs changing during POST, until they eventually quiet down to just 1,2,3 solid on (Manual says ensure disks properly connected).
But where I think I am is in the BIOS menu, except with a blank screen. .
ctrl-alt-delete reboots.
F1 boots my boot partition (bringing up GRUB), or the CD (booting a KNOPPIX CD).
In case there was some sort of BIOS disable, I tried the PSWD/RTCCLR jumper procedure. All that did was make it so I had to use F1 to boot, instead of the old boot sequence.
It's like the vga no longer has a text mode, or like it no longer has a font built in, so all characters are black. (Sort of doubt that's it, because I think a cursor would show though even if fonts were blanked). The text mode display that lived at memory address 0xB000:0000 back in the days of DOS.
Booting a MEMTEST86 CD flashesh the drive lights like it's working (flashed CD drive, no hard disk activity), so I suspect that it'd text mode display is blacked too.
This really feels like the built in graphics chip no longer supports text.
Is there something that makes a SC1430 act that way, and how can I fix it?
I wish I had a plain PCI SVGA card to try that.
infixed
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March 10th, 2014 11:00
Going to call this one solved.
Was able to move another monitor to the misbehaving SC1430.
Plugged into the VGA, this monitor showed the text only BIOS messages.
Unknown why the other monitor wouldn't display the ES1000 text mode video signal, but would display the 8400GS text mode video signal.
Another mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. I guess with an oscilloscope I could figure out what the problem was. Is the ES1000 a bit off frequency, so the big monitor couldn't lock on perhaps?
infixed
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March 10th, 2014 11:00
I was able to get a small monitor ocer to the misbehaving SC1430, and on that monitor the BIOS text mode stuff shows up fine.
So for some reason, the big monitor like 8400GS text mode, but doesn't like the built in ES1000 text mode.
It's a mystery, but probably not the SC1430's fault.
At a guess, the ES1000 was using a frequency that the big monitor didn't like.
Maybe the small monitor has a status screen that will tell me how it is being clocked. But really this thread should be marked solved.
DELL-Josh Cr
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March 10th, 2014 08:00
Hi,
It sounds like an issue with the lower resolution, either the onboard video not displaying it properly or the monitor. If you go to CLI instead of GUI in linux does it display video? You could also try changing the resolution in the GUI and see if that works. If you have another monitor you could test that as well. We could try our diagnostics but I am not sure if it will boot and display it. http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails/Product/poweredge-1430sc?driverId=5JYC6&osCode=WNET&fileId=2731107884&languageCode=en&categoryId=DI
infixed
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March 10th, 2014 09:00
It used to be that ctrl-ALT-F1 (or other F keys) would put you into a text screen.
It still does, but it's not the plain old 80x25 one fondly recalls from the 20th century.
Instead it is many lines and many characters wide, and I am fairly sure it is an emulation by the linux kernel instead of a plain old graphics card mode.
That said, I have another SC1430, and when I use that monitor on that SC1430, it works just fine in text mode.
One caveat though, I do have a NVIDIA 8400GS in that second unit (through a x16 to x8 pci-e adapter), so it's not an exact A/B comparison, and I don't want to take down the working SC1430 to re-enable its es1000.
I will try moving the VGA cord. Pretty sure it used to show on both VGA plugs back before I went to just the 8400.
Ordered a used plain old PCI SVGA card from Amazon. This SC1430 is pretty much used as a blind server, but some days I may want text mode for management. I certainly want to get it where I don't have to hit F1 to boot anymore, and that probably means some setup screen work.
My guess is the text mode died in the first unit a long ways back, and it just never got noticed because it was always up with the screensaver blanking the screen.. I know it was there when I first installed Linux on it.