No more video after driver install

[photoman]

Hi gang,

I have an older Dell Latitude (with an atitude). I noticed that scrolling down web pages and such has been painfully slow. I didn't have that problem with Windows installed and so it just goes to reason that the video driver is not right. I selected "display driver update" (or something like that) from one of the menus. It saw that I needed an update to the nVidia driver. I authenticated the request and it downloaded and supposedly installed the update. Now I have no video. I get the splash screen and the start-up scripts but then after it loads, it goes black.

I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer with Linux because I've primarily been an operator with it for years. I never had any admin privileges until I finally decided to install it on my home systems. That being said, what do I need to do to get this to work? I seem to remember nVidia drivers not being spoken of highly in other Linux forums.

Your help would be most highly appreciated!! Thanks.

Grace and peace,

Mike

[martinfromdublin]

Hi Photoman,

Which version of Ubuntu did you install? Also, take a look a my post in this thread where I had an issue with a Gateway FPD 1500 flat panel monitor, my solution might work for you as well but which version you are using may decide that.

[photoman]

Hi Martin. I'm using Ubuntu 9.10, Kernel 2.6.31-20 generic. I'll also check your post on the Gateway issue.

Thanks!

Grace and peace,

Mike

[photoman]

Still no resolution....rolling back to an older version hasn't helped in the past. There is just something snafu about this Dell C840 and the nVidia video. I can never get it to work. Any other ideas, folks?

Thanks.

Grace and peace!

Mike

[reed9]

Can you post the contents of the file /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[hatebreed]

get to a terminal via safe mode or live cd. If you can get to a terminal through safe mode then log in as root and type nvidia-xconfig -mode="1024x768" and the other resolutions you need and reboot. if you need to use a live cd edit your xorg.conf file and under the screen section add option "metamodes" "1024x768 +0+0; 800x600 +0+0". Also under the monitor section go to model name and make sure that it has the correct model name listed, if not add yours. save and reboot. try this and post results.