Getting my stuff of Ubuntu

[#1]

OK, new problem. Seems pointless setting up a new post so might as well go through it here now folk know how I got to this point.
Can't seem to get both my monitors working using the 173.14.30 drivers. They both work through the boot process until the drivers kicks in, I can tell this by my fan speed slowing down. Soon as it does I lose signal to one of the monitors.
Sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place 
Just wondering which is the path of least resistance here. It goes as follows....
173.14.30 which I'm guessing is a very old driver doesn't run both monitors. The 304 drivers screw my desktop and the nouveau ones won't adjust my fan speed down. I've heard this is possible if I enable coolbits which I'm not over familiar with.  Perhaps I should look for the last known driver version that worked prior to the updated 304
Any of you guys and galls know which direction to head in before I try all three and end up getting nothing?

[#2]

The place to go is https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers
This tells you how to identify precisely what version of the nvidia drivers to use.
I find that nouveau runs my very medium capability card in a backup mode.

Quote

Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GK208 [GeForce GT 730] bus-ID: 01:00.0           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 driver: nvidia Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz           GLX Renderer: GeForce GT 730/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.4.0 NVIDIA 340.65 Direct Rendering: Yes

( That output came from running inxi -Gx )

[#3]

Quote

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation NV40 [GeForce 6800 GT] [10de:0045] (rev a1) Uh oh. Failed to identify your Debian suite.

The offending prop driver is 304.128 which is also the latest driver from Nvidia. It came out in August this year which would explain why after updating after some time off smashed my system. The previous driver 304.125 was from december 2014 when I had a fully working system but not sure if this was installed through updates in Ubuntu. I have never used any other graphics driver other than ones the auto updated through Ubuntu. Should I try the 125?

[#4]

If it is working as expected then LEAVE IT ALONE.

[#5]

It's not working though buddy. See my previous, I need two monitors for work which won't work with nouveu or 175. The driver through Ubuntu 304.218 kills my desktop.

[#6]

Should also note,, like fox said using 173 and nouv makes my computer sluggish and Web pages rendor slowly with jerky mouse wheel movements. Previous Ubuntu drivers have worked for me until it would appear the 218 sometime in the last few updates. I guess I need to get back to some older ones some how. Or, there's a driver conflict of some kind.

[#7]

Just been reading through this post http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,122547.0.html I made back in Jan 2014

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Issue seems to be kernel module has 304.108 but the driver has version 304.88 if that helps. [/quote/] It would appear that was the driver version I was using back then on the exact same system. so that narrows down drivers between then and now. I also haven't used this system for approx 6months so unless there's some way of fixing the 304.218 issues then I need to somehow roll back to a driver that came before ubuntu updated the nvidia driver in the last six months. Does ubuntu have a list somewhere of nivida drivers they pushed out in,updates? I assume they  won't be the same as the release dates from the nvidia site. I found something showing when Nvidia released there versions before when I left work but can't seem to find it again.

[#8]

OK way to roll it back.
Open synaptic find the NV driver
right click choose properties
click on Versions. That will show you what is available.
If you need an older one the you need to goto the NV site and get it there.
I thought the Open driver supported multi screen. I am using the Amd version here and have 2 screens.

[#9]

Having no joy mate. I did as you said in synaptics, the only other version available to me was 304.118, again can't get into desktop. Never had so many problems before with linux which is why I try and stick to using it as much as possible. Out of curiosity I even went back into fallback gnome mode and installed the latest 304.128 driver to see if there was a conflict between drivers and unity but it was the same, couldn't get to desktop.
Was looking forward to running this system again, when it was at my house it was snappy and a pleasure to work on but right now it's laggy and unresponsive, especially when surfing web pages. I even installed chrome and chromium to see if they were an improvement on FF but chromium refused to open!
This isn't the system I remember. I have a liitle msi netbook with 1gig of ram that's soo much better to use. I think there's something else underlying or the G drivers I am using are making it this way. Like fox mentioned earlier using the nouveu drivers feels like you are running something low powered and I have no control over the fan speed. I couldn't work like that and the noise is irritating.
The 173 drivers don't appear to run the two monitors, it doesn't even detect one of them unless I need to do something else. They both work up to the point where you login, once the drivers kick in (fan slows down) I lose signal to one of the monitors.
Was never this hard to get a simple system running, don't know where to go next if I'm honest. Spent three days on and off trying to get a working system running for monday morning. Two monitors is essential for my work but in the state it's running with drivers I can use I couldn't work like that.
Really surprised at Ubuntu forums, I searched there to see if anyone was having the same experience but anything close was solved by repairing Unity which doesn't work for me. 100's of views and not one reply. Can't work out how nobody at all has found themselves in my situation.

[#10]

Realised fox earlier meant fall back gnome mode. Also came across some stuff where firefox doesn't get on with some nvidia drivers. Maybe that would explain a lot of the stuttering while browsing.

[#11]

Yes - with nouveau my nvidia GPU uses some kind of fall back Gnome - but it also reduces the resolution to [guess] 1024 x 768
Also some screen tearing.
It might be that the low resolution screens in bootup work OK until it tries to switch to high resolution.
What happens if you unplug one of the screens?
BTW Is the card relatively new?

[#12]

No, 6800gt, is about thirteen year old. Late and worse for wear. But tomorrow I sort of have a plan.

[#13]

Personally I would get a cheapo replacement video card. You can get a reasonable one for about a tenner. The issue is that the old card isn't supported by the new drivers. I have a new AMD card that isn't supported by the latest driver either, so have to run the nouveau driver on it, as I couldn't even get the AMD one to see it.

[#14]

Quote from: Hairy

Personally I would get a cheapo replacement video card. You can get a reasonable one for about a tenner. The issue is that the old card isn't supported by the new drivers.

After six months of inactivity it's worth opening the system up and cleaning the fans to ensure the GPU isn't overheating (but at 13 years old it's probably due retirement)

Quote

I have a new AMD card that isn't supported by the latest driver either, so have to run the nouveau driver on it, as I couldn't even get the AMD one to see it.

waldo@wheezy:~$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA C77 [GeForce 8200] 
                    X.Org: 1.12.4 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1680x1050@59.9hz, 1600x900@60.0hz 
                    GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NVAA GLX Version: 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 8.0.5)

Nouveau is an open source driver for Nvidia chipsets (you're most likely using the radeon driver on AMD); on nvidia hardware I have I find nouveau more than good enough even on a dual monitor setup (Nvidia wins on full screen video playback but that's not something I spend a lot of time on).

[#15]

OK so I got the name wrong, but I am using the open source driver not the propriety driver on my AMD 
[code[hairybiker@octo:~$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Oland PRO [Radeon R7 240] 
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1600x900@60.0hz, 1680x1050@60.0hz 

I used to use a NV card until I got this new pc with an AMD chipset on it.
I have never had any driver issues with the older NV card GT 610 that I bought several years ago.