What to blame for ATI lockups after upgrade ?

[Xavier Bestel]

On Sun, 2008-01-06 at 23:46 -0200, Frédéric L. W. Meunier wrote:
> On Mon, 31 Dec 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:
> 
> > On Dec 28, 2007 5:31 PM, Frédéric L. W. Meunier wrote:
> >> On Fri, 28 Dec 2007, Alex Deucher wrote:
> >>
> >> > On Dec 28, 2007 5:00 PM, Frédéric L. W. Meunier wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> I used XOrg 1.4 with ATI driver 6.7.196 without any problems
> >> >> for a month. I upgraded to XOrg 1.4.0.90 on december 13 and to
> >> >> ATI 6.7.197 on the 21.
> >> >>
> >> >> On the 22, suddenly, while moving the mouse cursor, nothing
> >> >> worked anymore. I could move the mouse, but it was like an "I"
> >> >> and didn't do anything. The screen was apparently locked, as
> >> >> the clock didn't get updated.
> >> >
> >> > Try disabling the DRI or changing the AGPMode.  the newer ati driver
> >> > switched back to AGP 1x mode by default, previous versions defaulted
> >> > to whatever mode the bios set.  Both seem to have stability problems
> >> > on different cards.
> >> >
> >> > Option "AGPMode" "4"
> >>
> >> I always had that option set in my xorg.conf (the card supports
> >> 8x, but the motherboard only 4x), so the solution would be to
> >> disable DRI and, if I need DRI (I don't for now), return to
> >> 6.7.196 ?
> >
> > Well, it should act the same as previous versions with that option.
> > If it doesn't then you'll probably want to file a bug and attach your
> > xorg log and config along with any other relevant info.
> 
> You're right. I tried without DRI and got the same after 6
> days. Then, I went back to 6.7.196, but the same happened
> today, after 3 days. So, it isn't the ATI driver.

FWIW I see lockups regularly too (it happens more often with compiz, but
I remember it happened with metacity (non-composited)).
As I've changed the whole PC, maybe it's the card failing.
How could I test for that ?

> The strange thing is that it always happens while I move the 
> mouse. And in the four until now, while the system was idle and 
> I moved the mouse inside a window running screen.