Zorin OS won't detect video card

Using different computer because after installing Zorin OS 17, monitor doesn't work. System is a HP Compag 6300, I5-3470, 16Mb ram, SSD, GT 1050TI video card. Tried to install with modern Nvidia drivers. Took Card out and it works on the Intel chip video. Copied and pasted a link to update drivers from this forum. And IF I'm looking at the right thing on the terminal, it says that the Nvidia driver 550 is installed. I am complete newbie at Linux, don't know any of the terminology, so I'm not sure of I did every thing correctly. Everything worked fine before when I had Win 10. This is one of the reasons I have not been keen about going to Linux, but with Win 11 BS, I thought I would give it a try since I use steam for most of my games and Linux is supported there for 90% of the games. I have no Idea what to do now. I have tried reinstalling, removing card and adding drivers, then reinstalling card to no avail. Help, I would like to move away from Windows, but I am not a programmer in any sense of the word.

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Hello,

Make sure the Nvidia driver is installed. You can try different drivers to see which one is working.
You can also try disable intel GPU in the BIOS so you are forcing the OS to use the Nvidia card.
Give us the output of these commands

sudo apt install inxi
inxi -Ga
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Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915 v: kernel ports: active: VGA-1
empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0152 class-ID: 0380
Device-2: NVIDIA GP107 [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti] driver: nvidia v: 550.67
alternate: nvidiafb,nouveau,nvidia_drm pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16
ports: active: none off: HDMI-A-2 empty: DP-2,DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
chip-ID: 10de:1c82 class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 compositor: gnome-shell v: 43.9
driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa
gpu: i915 display-ID: :1 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2390x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 632x203mm (24.9x8.0")
s-diag: 664mm (26.1")
Monitor-1: HDMI-0 pos: right res: 1024x768 hz: 60 size: N/A
Monitor-2: VGA-1-1 pos: primary,left res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 84
size: 413x234mm (16.3x9.2") diag: 475mm (18.7")
OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 550.67 direct render: Yes

Is this what you need? Not sure if this is the readout you need or not.

So, it looks like it sees the card, but it won't use it. Where in bios do go to make the card as the only option?
Sorry for the delay on seeing this answer and getting back to ya'll, been busy with stuff around the house.

Gday @Ste1 , Welcome to the community!

As Storm has said above, "to try diff drivers".
The latest driver may not always suit some machines.

Please Open "Software Updates", After it loads, Click "Settings", then Click the TAB "Additional drivers".
In here it may say (Recommended) but may not always be correct, It will confirm the driver being used, with the 550Driver already selected, When trying a different driver it is good practise to select a drive that is proven, not a beta Driver.
So maybe the next driver down is the 535, select that driver & follow the prompts.

This is the same as trying a difference Kernel, to help resolve the issue.

Hope this helps.

Added:
Please also update your BIOS firmware/drivers.

Just did that and now the monitor doesn't work at all. I am using a much newer monitor from another system to get on now. That old monitor is a HP1851w and I cannot seem to find newer drivers for it. Where do you look for new drivers? Can I download newer driver if I am not using that monitor at the time? HP doesn't support Linux drivers for this monitor.

Ok i believe there should be more than just the one other drive, maybe there i s 3 lets say... have you tried all ?

Note: an old monitor may only run better on an old driver!!

Do you reboot after changing the driver?

If yes to all, then maybe you could try different kernels'.

The Latest, may not always be the greatest!

You may need to disable "Secure Boot"

Double checked secure boot, it is disabled. Checked HP for any drivers for that monitor and there are none. Maybe have to get a newer monitor to use. I think I have one out in the shed. Will check tomorrow when the sun is up. i downloaded and installed the driver recommended by the software updater. I think it is just the monitor. It is kinda old, first made in 2009. Also updated bios. Not sure what else to do, short of using different monitor.

Double check cables or swap if possible, use another port if poss,
If ports haven't been used in a long time they can oxidize & this will stop data flow.
A DYI trick is to slightly wiggle the plug side to side, in & out a few times, sometimes helps.
or for a professorial clean, you'll need a can of electro clean & some cotton ear bud's, spray the port & vigorously but lightly rub the terminals, i have heard some people use the finest cutting paste (as used on car paint or furniture) then clean with the "Electro clean".
Care must be taken , Not to bend the terminals.

What cable are you using?

Keep us informed

Added;
Look for Hardware acceleration in the BIOS/UEFI if you can, disable it.

Actually that finally came to me as well. The brand new cord I just bought is defective. I tried it on 2 other computers and it didn't work on them either. sorry for forgetting the basic rule of checking all new stuff first before looking for complicated problems. I will leave this open until I can get new cord and try again. Oops. :slight_smile:

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No need to be sorry, this is exactly why the forum is here, to help you/us think of thing's we dont normally think of,, as they say, "Two heads are better than one".
make sure that the (I assume) HDMI cable is bi-directional, if it has a lump at one end of the cable it only works in one direction.

Anyway lets see if it helps, let us know when you know :slight_smile:

Looking at the original post you appear to have hybrid graphics which can also cause issues. Follow this guide to see if it helps.

Under no circumstances should you install nvidia drivers marked as "tested/testing".

Thanks for the reference. I have been trying to find where I go besides YouTube to find out how to do what is necessary for this OS and how to change things. My new cable gets here tomorrow, so I'll see what happens.

Got new cord, but it doesn't work either. Do I need a converter for this? I've done this before with DVI without any problems. I am going to get a converter and see if that solves the problem. I've never had such a problem getting hardware to work. Converter on it's way, I want to thank all of you who have helped me on this problem. It seems I have fallen a bit behind on hardware and it's workings.

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Same here. My current daily OS is PCLinuxOS, and I had to downgrade my graphics to get it to run!

The adapter solved the problem. Works fine now. Thank you all for your help. I guess this monitor is older than I thought.
Have a great day!

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