Video card model not recognized

Can you give the output of:

sudo lshw -C display; dpkg -l | grep nvidia; cat /etc/lsb-release

Thanks

Andrew:
As requested:

williepabon@WP-WrkStation:~$ sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password for williepabon:
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: nVidia Corporation
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:16 memory:de000000-deffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff(prefetchable) memory:d0000000-d1ffffff(prefetchable) ioport:cc80(size=128) memory:dfc00000-dfc7ffff(prefetchable)
williepabon@WP-WrkStation:~$ dpkg -l | grep nvidia
ii nvidia-173-modaliases 173.14.22-0ubuntu11 Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org drive
ii nvidia-96-modaliases 96.43.17-0ubuntu1 Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org drive
ii nvidia-common 0.2.23 Find obsolete NVIDIA drivers
ii nvidia-current 195.36.24-0ubuntu1~10.04 NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and
ii nvidia-current-modaliases 195.36.24-0ubuntu1~10.04 Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org drive
ii nvidia-settings 195.36.08-0ubuntu2 Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driv
williepabon@WP-WrkStation:~$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucid
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS"

wp

Strange, which nvidia chip do you have?

Andrew:

GPU: GeForce 8 Series (GeForce 8400 GS)
wp

You may need the xord update PPA to get the 270 driver. Lucid only has the 195 driver which isn't great. Why didn't you install Natty or Maverick? Seems weird.

sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-current
sudo apt-get --purge autoremove
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install nvidia-graphics-drivers

Should give the 275 drive in Lucid.

I'm going to do your suggestion to see how it goes. I installed my current version of Linux last year and since it has been stable, have LTS, and I have quite a few applications installed using this OS, I haven't thought of any reason to change it. If there are, let me know. What happens with all the applications installed if if I change to a different version of the OS? Anyway, thank you for the help. Tomorrow with execute the changes.
wp

Tru Lucid is LTS but the desktop support ends when Natty does. The PPA should give you what you need though :)

Andrew:
After doing all the exercise above I get the following at the end:
williepabon@WP-WrkStation:~$ sudo apt-get -y install nvidia-graphics-drivers
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package nvidia-graphics-drivers

Please, advise.
wp

Sorry, pressed the worn button

Please try

sudo apt-get -y install nvidia-current

Andrew:

I did a reboot, and got a message that my machine is running on low graphics mode, the reason being that it couldn't find the graphics driver. Pleaaaaase, help.
wp

Please read the already answered questions about nvidia issue here
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-nv

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-nv/+question/165722

Marco:

After I installed the nvidia-current (version 275) my card was correctly recognized, and all is functioning well now. Thanks.
wp