Troubleshooting for Laptops: Video

Video troubleshooting guide on the Ubuntu community wiki.[1]

This list is highly incomplete, and will be heavily edited in the coming weeks.

Problem: Wonky screen; screen is black, divided, filled with lines or textures, or otherwise displays unreadable garbage.

Solution: Determine whether the problem is in the hardware or in the software.

1. Attach another monitor to the laptop.

If this clears up the problem, the display in the laptop is faulty. Ask your instructor what to do.

If this does not clear up the problem, check the software.

1. Determine what video card is in the machine.

Open BIOS to do this.

NVidia--Download the needed driver if you know how. If you don't know how, put a piece of masking tape on the top of the machine indicating that the video driver probably needs to be downloaded.

ATI--Download the needed driver if you know how. If you don't know how, put a piece of masking tape on the top of the machine indicating that the video driver probably needs to be downloaded.

Intel, other--Download the needed driver if you know how. If you don't know how, put a piece of masking tape on the top of the machine indicating that the video driver probably needs to be downloaded.

--Did you change anything immediately before the problem started? If so, undo the change and then try the device again.

Use foo to check the device. (Foo = Ubuntu's equivalent of Windows Device Manager. Is this a legit step? Outline how to use foo to check this device.)