[plug] Query about display problem

[Bret Busby]

On 30/06/2011, Bret Busby <bret.busby at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> I am running Debian 5, on, I think, an AMD Athlon, and the monitor is
> a Viewsonic VZ703b 17" 4:3 aspect ratio screen.
>
> (I do not remember how to get the displaying of the hardware
> components (CPU, graphics adaptor/accelerator, display, etc)
>
> In the last few days, the monitor has started to "flash" off - going
> black, with nothing displayed, for a couple of seconds at a time.
>
> This can happen repeatedly, with progressively increasing frequency
> during a session as described below.
>
> It seems to happen mostly when I am running alpine, within a terminal
> window.
>
> Apart from it having happened once  just before staring to compose
> this message, shortly after I opened konqueror, to log into my gmail
> (which may be the only time that it has happened other than when I
> have been so using alpine), within a minute or so of my closing down
> alpine and the terminal window, I do not remember it happening with
> applications other than when I have been running alpine within a
> terminal window.
>
> Is this an indication that the monitor is likely stuffed, or the
> graphics adaptor is stuffed, or that the fault lies in the
> alpine/xterm/gnome combination?
>
> A new printer has been installed; a Samsung CLX3185Fw, using the
> Samsung Unified Driver (which required a replacement of the Samsung
> Unified Driver, to provide for the printer, which was not available
> with the previous version of the Unified Driver), which may be about
> the timing of the start of the problem, but I am not sure of the exact
> timing of the start of the problem and the installation of the printer
> - both have been in the last few days.
>
> So, I do not know whether the problem could lie with the printer or
> the printer driver.
>
> Thanks in anticipation.
>
> --
> Bret Busby
> Armadale
> West Australia
> ..............
>

And, while it appeared to be stable (-ish) when I was working using
the GUI, to send the email message using gmail, when I tried using a
console (<CTRL><ALT><F2 (I think) >), it happened again, again with
progressively increasing frequency, while I was trying to compose a
message using alpine, yet, when I exited alpine and closed that
console, and (managed to, with difficulty) return(ed) to the GUI, to
write this message, the problem again disappeared.

Thus, it appears to be a fault within alpine or the xterm/console
application thingy.

Weird.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

....................................................