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« on: May 15, 2018, 02:23:49 am »
I am using a ATI Radeon PCIe x600 card. Fantastic card, very cheap, quick.
I thought it was related to SNAP because the trap happens after the SNAP splash screen and before the screens turn blue and then the desktop appears. Which is what lead me to revert to VGA and reinstall SNAP.
ArcaNoae thinks it is a timing issue and not a SNAP issue, and my reverting to VGA is effecting the timing of something on startup. There are a number of other people who have gotten the same Trap at the same location.
The trap happens every morning when I first boot up, but sometimes also happens on reboot during the day. I will keep the SET LIBCX_HIGHMEM=2 REMed out for a day or two if I get no traps so I can report back to ArcaNoae.
I now don't THINK there is a conflict between SNAP and Vbox that cause the trap. But there are some memory considerations when using SNAP and vbox, which were talked about on this thread or the other VirtualBox thread. Basically: SNAP will consume lots of memory it apparently doesn't need, which can affect vbox starting and running. The solution is to limit the memory consumed by SNAP with the GAOPTION VIDMEM xx command. I am using 32 for the xx, which limits SNAP to 32MBs. This works ok with my SNAP dual monitor setup when using 64k colors.
If you decide to try the Radeon x600 PCIe there are two considerations to keep in mind. The card is a half height card and you probably want to make sure it comes with full height bracket. Otherwise you have to replace the bracket - which is easy if you have the full height bracket. The other consideration is the card has a weird connector on the back, a DMS59 connector, and you need the cable set to go with it: male DMS59 to 2 female VGA connectors, or male DMS59 to 2 female DVI, or male DMS59 to 1 VGA and 1 DVI. It appears any card will work with any cable set. The part number seems to indicate the bracket height, the memory on the card, and the cable set included with the card, but you can switch the cable sets around and they still work.
The card runs between $5 to $10 on ebay. If it doesn't include the cable you can get the cable for about $5 to $10 on Amazon or ebay.