New video card but horrible graphics after installing drivers...?
 

I bought a new Video card (GT218 GeForce 210) and installed it and it looked ok out of the box without installing the nvidia drivers but I could not get up to 1920x1080 resolution so I installed the nvidia drivers, the resolution is higher but not where it needs to be also text and pictures are blurry and fuzzy, not sharp at all. I tried nvidia-xconfig --mode=1600x1200, that altered the xorg file but I did not see any change and I still cannot set the display up to 1920x1080.

Is there a safe way to alter the xorg file manually without causing havok?
Thanks.

Yes, you may edit the xorg file safely. Which type are you currently using, the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, or the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d directory? If using the file, open it up and make sure that under the "Device" section, your driver is set to nvidia, and not nv, vesa, or anything else. Also find your "Screen" section and verify that your resolution is listed as such:

Save the file and restart your X server. If you are using the newer directory type of xorg configuration, I am more unfamiliar with it, but the same information I think is available under /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf

You might also want to look over this page, and as a non-permanent solution to fix your resolution, try "$xrandr -s 1920x1080".

Alter stuff in /etc/xorg.conf.d. If it's going to cause havoc, either the monitor beam limits and need the power flashed, or X rejects it.

Try console runlevel, startx > some.file 2>&1

and see what it's thinking.

Actually, the easiest way to set the resolution on Nvidia cards is to use Nvidia's tool for it:

I tried the settings and they are limited.
Thanks.

It may be that your resolution is capped at that point because your monitor refresh rates are being misread. I am using the Nvidia 3.02 drivers and have a geforce 210. When i run nvidia-settings the highest resolution setting i see is 1856x1392.

You may want to try entering your monitor refresh rates in your xorg.conf file. Consult the monitor manufacturers spec sheet for the proper values.

This is an excerpt from my xorg.conf as an example, these rates are for my monitor, an old 19 inch crt, do not try to use these values but substitute the ones for your monitor.

New Nvidia drivers just came out so now I would like to uninstall the old ones and install the new ones, I just tried to install the new drivers and lost my X server for an hour or so untill I could figure out how to get it back.

On another forum.. :( I read that the new drivers remove the old ones when you install them but I found out the hard way that, that is not true.

I have tried nvidia --uninstall and sh nvidia--uninstall and every which way but cannot figure out how to uninstall them. I think maybe I have to be in a certain directory but cannot locate where the uninstall location is.

Anyone have any tips on this particular issue?

Thanks.

The new drivers do uninstall the old ones. Its the first thing that you see in the ncurses install screen. Just make the new driver file you downloaded executable, kill X, and run it from a console.

Thats exactly what I did, but when X crashed the error in the log showed that there was a conflict between the old version and the new version numbers, and the new drivers could not load. I uninstalled the new version and now I have X back using the old version. Is there another way to install the drivers?

They installed flawlessly for me. Try downloading them again. Are you doing this under ubuntu or slackware?

Ubuntu.
I got them directly off the Nvidia website.

This is the file: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-302.17.run

Is this the correct one?

Yes thats the correct file and version and i know of no other way to install it.

Well I guess I will DL it again and see.

Thanks.

It would help to see your Xorg.o.log. Please load it up to a Pastebin service and post the link here.