My old MB had integrated video, but my new (to unRAID) MB didn't have integrated video and I didn't want to lose my PCI-e x16 slot, so I dumped an old PCI video card in it.

 

During the build when I was actively using it, it worked just fine. However, now that it's complete and mostly just sits there, it eventually hits a timer and blanks the monitor (as expected). However, when I tap on the keyboard to wake up the display, the entire monitor is covered in garbage and I need to reboot remotely to get use of the screen back. Note that the server is not sleeping, just the monitor.

 

It's been a long time since I've used a PCI card, and this MB previously had an nvidia PCI-e card on it. Are there any settings in the BIOS I need to change to fix this or any other ideas? If not, how can I turn off the monitor blanking timer? I can just turn off the monitor as I rarely use it.

When you see the garbage on screen try pressing Alt+F2 (or any F key F2-F6).  This should switch you to another console, and you should be back to Tower Login:

 

Of course, this is only a temporary solution, as eventually you will run out of alternate consoles (as there are only 6).  Still, I'm curious to see if it works.

No, I'm afraid not. When I hit F2, there is a change in the garbage along the bottom of the screen. If I then hit F3, there is another change just to the right of that, and so on. 

No, I'm afraid not. When I hit F2, there is a change in the garbage along the bottom of the screen. If I then hit F3, there is another change just to the right of that, and so on. 

Not F3, or F2, but Alt-F2 or Alt-F3 (Actually anything from Alt-F1 through Alt-F6 will present a login prompt and an alternate virtual console.

Oh yeah, my bad. That's what I get for sneaking away for a minute to check in on this.

 

So, Alt-F2 (to F6) take me to equivalent garbage screens. I can see a cursor blinking about where I would expect the login prompt, but the screen is completely unreadable.

 

I've attached a picture of the screen.

I've found the following setting in /etc/rc.d/rc.M, so I think I can disable this from happening.

 

# Screen blanks after 15 minutes idle time, and powers down in one hour
# if the kernel supports APM or ACPI power management:
/bin/setterm -blank 15 -powersave powerdown -powerdown 60

 

I'm curious if this message from my syslog may have something to do with it though, and if there is anything I can do about it:

 

Sep 16 21:00:45 WatchTower kernel: w83627ehf: Found W83667HG chip at 0x290
Sep 16 21:00:45 WatchTower kernel: ACPI: I/O resource w83627ehf [0x295-0x296] conflicts with ACPI region HWRE [0x290-0x299]
Sep 16 21:00:45 WatchTower kernel: ACPI: If an ACPI driver is available for this device, you should use it instead of the native driver