I just installed a new motherboard/CPU/ram but kept the same video card and harddrive. Now everything seems to be working except xorg crashes (black screen, keyboard locked) if I try to use the "nvidia" driver... works fine if I specify "vesa" (but then my video resolution sucks and no 3D).

My new motherboard is ASUS M3A (chipset AMD770/SB600) and my video card is nvidia 7600GS (plugged into Viewsonic VA2026w LCD with DVI cable). I also tried an nvidia 8600GT in it with the same result. I run Archlinux with kernel26 2.6.24.3-3.

Anybody else using this combination and having problems?

Try re-running the nvidia driver install.

I've un-installed and re-installed (from the archlinux repositories). I've also downloaded the latest version from nvidia.com and used their installer. Xorg still completely freezes the system the moment I do "startx"... no nvidia splash screen and nothing written to /var/log/Xorg.0.log

if you have a 'spare' hard drive or may be just a partition you could try and do a clean install of your fav distro to see if the problem persists without losing/damaging any existing installations.

As a test, I installed Kubuntu on a different drive and my video (using nvidia driver) works fine.

grab the xorg.conf file out of your new install and try using it with the install that isn't working properly.

I'm now suddenly having the same problem with Kubuntu. Something really strange going on here. I stuck with my Kubuntu install since it was working fine with "nvidia" module for about a week (was playing 3D games and everything with no hiccups). Then after a recent reboot, complete freeze upon loading the nvidia module. Here are the last 2 lines from the Xorg log file...

(II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nvidia_drv.so

So, as you can see, nothing gets logged once it attempts the module load.

I tried installing "envy" and letting that do the nvidia download / install / xorg.conf modification for me. Same result... complete freeze upon loading "nvidia".

I am now using "nv" driver but would really like "nvidia" working again.

Any suggestions or any idea why this would be happening?

I really have no idea other then to suspect some kind of hardware failure (starting with your vga card). I am no good for interpreting log files or any other (editable) file, I totally rely on the wisdom and kindness of other users of this forum. I did notice 2 times a forward slash (//) in your lines; does this indicate you hand typed these lines or did you copy/paste them and are they really like that? I also am not familiar with 'envy'. would you have a 'spare' nvidia video card to try?

So, after having no luck getting the video card to work with kubuntu (tried newest drivers from nvidia site, waited for kubuntu kernel updates, etc...), I decided to test out a live DVD of Sabayon Linux, and low and behold, the video card with 3D (the real "nvidia" driver) works fine once again. hmmm.

Just an update... I have discovered that the issue is probably not with the software at all. My new motherboard (or then the nvidia card) WILL NOT allow the nvidia driver to load if the computer has been on for a long time and is coming up from a cold boot. The nvidia driver loads perfectly fine after a warm boot... but actually shutting it off and turning it back on does not allow X11 to load with closed-source nvidia driver. The solution is if I have to shutdown completely for some reason, to wait about 15 minutes to let the system cool down, then boot and it works fine. What an extremely odd problem and very frustrating to troubleshoot... hope this helps someone else that may have this issue (unlikely, heh).