Continuous problems with GeForce 9500 GT

[shayguitarra]

Hi,

I know variants of this problem have been posted before with the same and different video cards but nothing I have tried has solved the problem.
My problem is that I have been unable to get my video card working properly with the recommended nvidia drivers. I have tried installing through envyng, System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers and through terminal with apt-get. Whenever I install them my screen starts flashing on and off for about a second each time. The only solution has been to uninstall the drivers but then I am left with basic graphics and unable to enable desktop effects, play 3D games etc.

I have tried this mostly with the recommended 177 driver but it has also happened with the 173 driver.

Any help would be appreciated. I can pretty much do everything I need to do but I am a little annoyed that I am not getting the full functionality from Ubuntu.

Here is my system spec as generated by SysInfo:

SYSTEM INFORMATION
Running Ubuntu Linux, the Ubuntu 8.10 (intrepid) release.
GNOME: 2.24.1 (Ubuntu 2008-10-24)
Kernel version: 2.6.27-9-generic (#1 SMP Thu Nov 20 21:57:00 UTC 2008)
GCC: 4.3.2 (i486-linux-gnu)
Xorg: unknown (24 October 2008 08:00:16AM) (24 October 2008 08:00:16AM)
Hostname: sheamus-desktop
Uptime: 0 days 0 h 4 min

CPU INFORMATION
AuthenticAMD, AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+
Number of CPUs: 2
CPU clock currently at 2814.389 MHz with 1024 KB cache
Numbering: family(15) model(67) stepping(3)
Bogomips: 5628.77
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy

MEMORY INFORMATION
Total memory: 2024 MB
Total swap: 5938 MB

STORAGE INFORMATION
SCSI device - scsi0
Vendor: PHILIPS
Model: PBDV16LSP1
SCSI device - scsi0
Vendor: _NEC
Model: NR-7800A
SCSI device - scsi3
Vendor: ATA
Model: SAMSUNG HD501LJ
SCSI device - scsi4
Vendor: ATA
Model: SAMSUNG HD753LJ

HARDWARE INFORMATION
MOTHERBOARD
Host bridge
Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
PCI bridge(s)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 01)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI bridge (rev a2) (prog-if 01)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
USB controller(s)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a1) (prog-if 10)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a2) (prog-if 20)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a1) (prog-if 10)
nVidia Corporation MCP55 USB Controller (rev a2) (prog-if 20)
ISA bridge
nVidia Corporation MCP55 LPC Bridge (rev a2)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7250
IDE interface
nVidia Corporation MCP55 SATA Controller (rev a2) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7250

GRAPHIC CARD
VGA controller
nVidia Corporation GeForce 9500 GT (rev a1)

SOUND CARD
Multimedia controller
nVidia Corporation MCP55 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7250

Any help would be appreciated. If I've missed something obvious on the forum just point me in the right direction. Also, bear in mind that I am something of a newbie but I'm fairly good at following instructions! Thanks.

[Chauncellor]

There's a new driver that nVidia came out with recently. 180.22 is their newest stable release, and your GPU has added support.

the new driver hasn't hit the repositories yet (it's only a few days old!). You can either wait until it lands or try this installer out.

If you're impatient, here's how you install the driver:

1. Open Synaptic and search "nvidia". Remove the 177 drivers.
2. Download the installer from this (http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_180.22.html) page to your Home folder
3. Press CTRL+ALT+F1 to log out
4. Log in through the text interface
5. Kill X: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
6. Run the installer: sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.22.pkg1.run
7. Answer yes to all of the questions and let it install
8. Start up the graphical manager: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start/[CODE]
9. Restart X-server: startx

And you're done! Keep that uninstaller, and if you ever need to remove it, do the same steps above but run this command instead:
[CODE]sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.22.pkg1.run --uninstall

nVidia's drivers are a bit of a mess right now. One thing I can say for sure is that you should not expect to have a working Suspend on your computer for quite some time. It's completely and utterly broken (on Windows, too). Seeing as you are on a desktop, that may or may not affect you.

I'm on a budget Geforce 6200 TC using the 180.06 Beta driver, and I found performance to increase substantially in some areas and decrease a little in others. However, there's been an overwhelmingly positive response on performance for these drivers, and I don't think all that many people are using my card.

There might be problems with stability, though it seems in your position you don't have much of a choice but to try these. I saw a few posts of a small group of people that experienced spontaneous crashes. This was a very small group, though. You know how to remove the package, so just test it out for a while and if it works well, great.

Let me know how this works out for you, I've actually been pondering getting a 9500 GT. Your experience will be the decisive factor for me :).

[shayguitarra]

Thank you so much. I'll give that a try when I get home this evening and let you know how I get on. :)

[Chauncellor]

No problem. It'd be a good idea to manually remove it with that uninstaller after the 180.22 package hits the repositories. You may want to post a sticky next to your computer to remind you. Life would be a lot easier if you have it "officially" installed as opposed to manually installed.

[shayguitarra]

It installed fine but the same problem remains. As soon as I try to actually do anything the screen starts flashing on and off. So I've uninstalled it. Thanks for the help anyway.

It would be good to know if anyone is running this card successfully.

[ed-koala]

I just finished this post about an hour ago

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1035873

If you have a fresh install like I did it'll probably work. If not, also uninstall envy while trying my solution, just in case.

Hope it works for ya!

[Chauncellor]

Could this be a problem with Compiz? I know that Intel graphics has problems with compiz on Intrepid. This is a wild guess on my part. You could remove it and see if everything else works:

sudo apt-get remove compiz compiz-core

then try booting and seeing what happens. Hopefully ed-koala's post will solve your problem, because it's a shame to have all that power and not be able to use it.

[Chauncellor]

Take a look at their site - There's a lot of activity going on at the moment:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=14

It looks like the later the release, the worse the driver got. Maybe you are better off using the 180.11 that you can see in the repos.

Here's a thread with a similar-looking issue that you may want to follow:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=126003

This is NOT COOL. I'm seriously getting PO'd at them for releasing shoddy drivers (three whole versions, no doubt!)

[ed-koala]

Compiz was not an issue with my system at all ... works fine now. So that shouldn't be the problem.

I do know that installing the driver is very sensitive to other nvidia packages being installed, and with your kernel version being up to date. That and getting xorg exactly right seems to be the trick to proper functioning. But then, who really knows for sure yet lol

[shayguitarra]

It is rather bizarre (and annoying) considering that I deliberately bought a newer video card thinking the drivers would be up to date and working properly.

It's not compiz in my case either. I'll watch that thread too. Thanks for all the input.

[Chauncellor]

There's a new driver out, and I've heard that it quite nearly supports it now. It still sucks as do all nVidia drivers, but it looks like there's hope.

I even read one person that said suspend worked for him, though I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Good luck.

[shayguitarra]

Thanks. To be honest I've downgraded to an old 256MB ATI for the moment that's working fine.

I'll wait 'til I have a few hours to spare and have a crack at the GeForce again!

[shayguitarra]

Sorry to return to this old chestnut, but I was wondering if there has been any progress.

I am now running Ubuntu 9.04, a more or less fresh install. I switched back to my nvidia video card because of the problems with the FGLRX driver for ATI.

I was running with the open source driver and things were ok, except I noticed that my video in vlc was extremely choppy/freezing. So I tried installing the proprietary drivers again, 180.44 through Envy NG. The video now looks great but I'm back to the screen flashing on and off when doing normal tasks. If it was simply a matter of enabling/disabling the driver then this would not be a problem but it requires a reboot each time to take effect. I've removed compiz as well, as per a previous suggestion but it makes no difference. Desktop effects are also off.

So what I'm wondering is have any solutions to this problem surfaced in the past four months?

[shayguitarra]

I seem to have solved this in the most simple way possible.

I replaced my dvi cable with a vga cable and I haven't had a problem for the past 24 hours.

I haven't reinstalled compiz and I'm running the basic desktop as I don't really care about the bells and whistles. But my video looks fantastic now which is really all I care about.

Maybe worth trying for some of you having similar problems.

[geraldgrogan]

Sorry to post to this old thread, but after searching all day for an answer the very same issue with this same video card, I was guessing that others might be interested in what worked for me.

After a kernal update my video stopped working. I had my PC connected to my flat screen monitor via a vga cable, which apperently was causing the problem, The log file mentioned that it could not determine the monitor model number. Appearently, this card needs to be connected via a dvi cable in order to operate properly (or at all).

Once I connected this video card to the monitor using a dvi cable, and then rebooted, the high resolution started working perfectly. Just in case I am not the last person on Earth to upgrade to DVI, I urge everyone to upgrade to DVI cables ASAP.

I hope this helps.