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Hi,
I'd like to use Q4OS on an old WINXP PC, but after install I get a blank screen, with the monitor displaying an "out of range" message.
-using a different computer I burned "Q4OS 5 Aquarius Trinity, Install CD (32bit)" to a USB drive using q4os-imager-1.7.4.1
-on the target computer, install completed successfully using CLASSIC INSTALL. Then after the prompted reboot, got the blank screen
-on subsequent boots I'll see lots of terminal commands going by, finally ending with something like "ttyl" and what looks like a prompt before the screen quickly goes blank
-tried a different monitor but had the same result
-tried "debian-12.11.0-i386-DVD-1" and installed each of those GUI's one at a time (gnome, xfce, gnome flashback, cinnamon, MATE, LXDE..) with ultimately the same blank screen result. The installer itself had quite a nice GUI that displayed with no issues. KDE Plasma and LXQt failed install due to SSE2 required.
-Motherboard is Sis-741. Using the onboard VGA output, with no expansion video card installed
-CPU is AMD Sempron 1.5 GHz, 1 core, 256K L2 Cache, 32bit, SMP
-1 GB RAM
-40 GB HDD
-going through BIOS settings I didn't see anything that seemed relevant
-the computer has no internet connection
-tried using "nomodeset" at bootup by going into "Advance options for Q4OS Desktop 5.8 'Aquarius'" in the GRUB menu, using e for edit, and inserting nomodeset before "ro quiet" in line beginning with "linux /boot/vmlinuz..." and then ctrl-x to boot, and then pressing enter on "*Q4OS Desktop 5.8 'Aquarius' 5.8.1-n1 [6.1.0-32-686-pae]". This resulted in a repeating error message "mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically"
Thank you,
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Monitor displaying out of range means the signal coming from the computer isnt compatible with your monitor(resolution/refresh rate). You didnt mention what hardware youre using with the old WinXP PC.
About your other issue, your using a Sis 741 motherboard where the built in graphics arent well supported even though the Sis drivers are included in the kernel(many times it doesnt work or doesnt work reliably). The SSE2 issue is a bit interesting as the AMD Sempron does support SSE2.
Your best bet is to add a discrete video card to your Sis 741 system, which will be supported by Linux without issues.
Last edited by crosscourt (2025-08-02 23:40)
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The other issue youre going to run into is, the sis 741 motherboard supports AGP graphics cards, not PCIE graphics cards. Not sure if youre going to be able to find an AGP card recent enough so you dont have issues with drivers, with Q4OS.
Its tough when youre sis 741 system is 22 years old and many aspects of it arent really reliably supported in modern OS. Theres also the fact that it appears AGP support is on the verge of being dropped in Linux, so it might be time to look for a used system thats a bit more recent.
Last edited by crosscourt (2025-08-03 02:55)
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Thank you very much for that information.
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Hope you find a good result.
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