u/BlueFingers3D

For anyone who has tried both the PedalPalFX PAL 800 and Marshall JCM 800 pedal, particularly when using them with a clean Fender valve amp, which do you prefer and why?

Also, if you’ve tried both but ended up opting for a different pedal to get your Marshall JCM 800 tone, I’d be interested to know why. Thanks!

EDIT: Today my GPU totally died, I think the issues I encountered and the changing nature of the issues were symptoms of a dying GPU, nothing to do with Linux. I want to thank you all for your input, much appreciated. Now off to build a new system.

Original Post:

I am reaching the absolute breaking point. After 50+ hours of troubleshooting a Clevo laptop (i7-11800H, RTX 3080 16GB VRAM), I have tested nearly every major distro and driver branch with zero success.

The Hardware:

• Laptop: SKIKK (Clevo, 11th Gen Chassis)
• Specs: i7-11800H, 32GB RAM, RTX 3080 Mobile (16GB VRAM)
• Connection: HDMI 2.1 wired directly to the dGPU.

The Symptom Matrix:

• PikaOS / CachyOS (NVIDIA 595): Immediate hard crash. The moment the HDMI is plugged in, the kernel panics and the system locks up instantly.
• Tuxedo / Pop!_OS (NVIDIA 580): A 20 to 50 second delay, followed by an external screen full of artifacts and a system-wide lag.
• Linux Mint: Cyan/green "snowy static noise" on the external monitor. The monitor "works" but the system becomes unusable and slow.
• Nobara: The external port becomes a "zombie." A standard reboot doesn't fix it; I have to boot a different Live USB to "reset" the port's hardware state.
• CachyOS (NVIDIA 580 Closed): Complete failure to get the 6.19 kernel and driver to negotiate. nvidia-smi reports a 1MiB VRAM bug (1MiB / 16384MiB) and an ERR! status.

Note: All OS's are the latest build except for Tuxedo that is the latest and the one before.

The Technical Findings:

1. Driver Panic vs. Timeout: The immediate crash on 595 vs. the 20-50-second delay on 580 proves the newer branch is fundamentally panicking the kernel, while 580 is trying (and failing) to negotiate the handshake until it times out.
2. Compilation Roadblock: Attempted to roll back to 550.x or 575.x on CachyOS, but they fail to build (Error 10) because the 2026 kernel headers (6.19) are too new for the older driver code.
3. The "Zombie" State: The GPU is detected via lspci, but any attempt to query it deadlocks the bus.

The Question: This is clearly a PCIe bus timeout or a vBIOS/handshake conflict during the HDMI power-state transition on Clevo hardware.

• Is there a Clevo-specific kernel parameter (like ibt=off, pcie_aspm=off, or pci=nommconf) that stabilizes the 11th Gen Intel + 3080 routing?
• Why does the 595 driver panic instantly while 580 tries to negotiate for 20 seconds?
• How do I stop the "1MiB VRAM" initialization failure that seems to haunt this 16GB card?

I am,...at my wits end,....I cannot use Intel-only or Nouveau workarounds for 3D applications I use through Lutris. And I do not want to go back to that other OS,....can't even write it without feeling mildly sick.

I hope I have included enough info, but after 50+ hours I have a bit of trouble making sure are relevant info is in here.