ASUS Motherboard mATX

[Amathus]

I have purcahsed an ASUS M3N78-EMH-HDMI Motherboard, isolated the on board graphics and installed an ASUS 8600GT Graphics card. CPU is AMD Phenom 9500 2.2Ghz, memory is 2Gb Corsair 1066, 2 x 500GB Seagate SATA with 32Mb Cache,  Hauppage NOVA T 500 Dual Tuner card. I cannot install 710 RC2 from DVD - Wizard fails to come up and all I get is a command line. Has anyone had this experience? Can anyone recommend an fully compatible ASUS main board which is mATX or any other CURRENT and  not obsolete mATX main board and graphics card that works? 

[rodercot]

On the wiki (mainpage - hardware or newbie packs - hardware etc..)There are a bunch of boards listed in there some with descriptions and some without. The Asus M2NPV-VM seems to work and if that board works then the HDMI version of that board should work as well.

 what chipset is on your board. Did you set any detail is the bios for the video. by wizard are saying A/V wizard if this is the case we would assume that the program installed - copied the files from the dvd to the hard drive and setup LMCE to that point or will it not even launch the Kubuntu splash screen?

 Tell us more.

 Thanks,

 Dave

[colinjones]

means X is failing to start - probably because of some video hardware problem (likely because of the onboard and card graphics at the same time)

There are loads of forum posts and wiki articles on this stuff - start by reading through your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file - this the the log file generated when X is starting up and initialising all the devices and configuration. It should have plenty of pointers in there in the form of warnings and errors to tell you what is going wrong.

If you can't login to the text terminal you are getting (eg because it keeps flickering on and off as it repeatedly tries to start X) then use another PC on your network (Internal) and connect using PuTTY (free SSH term program).

Don't know what you mean by "isolate" your onboard graphics, but you need to disable it completely in your BIOS...

[Amathus]

Thanks Dave / Colinjones ... The chipset on the M3N78-EMH-HDMI ASUS mobo I am using is NVIDIA GeForce 8200.
We have disabled the on board graphics but we still cannot get past the prompt after loading the MCE 710 RC2 DVD - it does not launch the splash screen.

Question. The mobo you have suggested  - Asus M2NPV-VM  - is obsolete now and as far as I can tell the closest replacement is  M2N-VM HDMI with Nvidia GeForce7050PV/nForce630a chipset - would this be a good substitute?

Question.  is the graphics card I am using - ASUS 8600GT - is this supported by MCE?  I was told not to use the on board graphics as the HD playback would not be smooth so I pourchased a decent graphics card and I am at this dilemna.

Your help much apprecaited.

[rodercot]

Hi,

 I am using an Asus Silent 8600Gt with no problems. It setup the latest "nv" driver when I did the dvd install of 710 (make sure your internet connection is working when installing from the DVD). Then I installed the "Nvidia" prop driver from the Nvidia website and I have had no problems since. Most issues you will find is not with the card but with the Xorg.conf configuration file and that will in most cases work at default but possibly with Overscan or Underscan issues this can be adjusted via modelines in certain cases. MYTHTV has a great db a some tv specific modelines. There is lots of info in the wiki and on this forum for such as well as the Ubuntu and MYTH TV site.  Oh Sorry! I am running DVI to HDMI at 1080p and I am playing back all HD with no problem. There are many users I think using slower GPU's with no issues as well. IE 7300, 7600 etc..

 Most Mainboards will not allow you to disable the on-board video but automagically puts your installed PCI-E card in place and you need to tell the bios which card gets priority upon booting. It should state in the manual for your board what to do if you are running another video card.

 The HDMI board is a good board I know my local pc parts supplier is selling tons of them. The other board I am reading about is the abit. here is a link to the wiki mainboard section.

 http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Category:Mainboards

 You do not have to run a Matx board unless your case restricts you. you already have the video card now and most of the on-board sound cards can cause some grief as well, so read through the list and see what your options are. I am using a P5K3 Deluxe WI-FI board and it has been up for almost a month straight with no issues. It is a bit overkill as I do not use the wi-fi or the sound but it is 100% rock solid - "touch wood" so far.
 

 rgds,

 Dave