I've been using Ubuntu Dapper Flight 5 (amd64) for about a week now with no problems, but the last time I restarted my computer, the nvidia Xorg (7.0.0.0)driver (1.0.8178) failed to start. The familiar nvidia logo ([is this done using X or the frambuffer]) appears as usual but then dissapears almost immediately giving an xserver error message (I don't know where to locate this file to show you). I'm now stuck using the nv driver which mucks up 3D support, appears to be slower, and has an annoyingly low refresh rate.

Thanks for any help.

The log file is /var/log/xorg.0.log

Have you updated xorg or the kernel? If you did then you need to reinstall the driver.

If you upgraded to kernel 2.16 then you need to patch the driver. Visit http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=62021 for info and patch.