i give up

[Garrett Cooper]

On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 10:32 AM, Joe Kelsey <joe at zircon.seattle.wa.us> wrote:
> Conrad J. Sabatier wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:49:02 +0900
>> Randy Bush <randy at psg.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>
>>> what a tragic story.  and zero technical info, like even what your
>>> controller is.  best of luck in penguin land.  bye!
>>>
>>> randy
>>>
>>
>> No, actually, I forwarded to Soren all the information I could glean
>> from Windows Vista, Linux and FreeBSD (which I managed to install on an
>> external USB drive).  I also applied the patches he sent me, which
>> failed to cure the problem, and have been monitoring the mailing lists
>> and CVS repo for any signs of progress, but so far I've seen nothing.
>>
>
> The first step in upgrading a FreeBSD system is to NEVER purchase ANYTHING
> with an nVidia logo anywhere near it.  nVidia purposelessly witholds
> programming information form free developers, so there is virtually no
> chance for being able to make anything with nVidia work at any time.
>
> Second, DO NOT use motherboards with built-in video.  These are almost
> always nvidia chipsets and suffer from the nvidia problem.  Also, the video
> is crappy and buggy.
>
> Several people have mentioned reliable internet shops to order proven
> hardware from.  Whenever you walk into a "local" computer store, you get no
> expertise in anything non-windoze.  Go somewhere where you can use a
> magnifying glass to examine the chips and actually determine whether or not
> you are likely to suffer the nvidia disaster.  Write down the motherboard
> information and ask on the mailing lists.  I had a horrid problem with
> crappy SATA chips on my motherboard, and I had to buy two different SATA PCI
> cards before I got one that worked.
>
> Trade in the defective motherboard to get a new one that works.  Think
> before you ever try to buy anything with nVidia logos on it, unless you are
> willing to run Linux crap.
>
> Good luck in the future.
>
> /Joe

Disclaimer: the above assumptions only apply (for the most part) to
motherboards with nVidia chipsets. Read the specs, do your homework,
and 9/10 Intel chipsets with onboard video will have Intel graphics
chipsets and AMD motherboard chipsets will come with ATI onboard
chipsets (surprise, surprise).
-Garrett