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Preface: I am somewhat tech savvy, but a complete newbie when it comes to building my own PC and also a complete newbie with Linux/Ubuntu.

So, I recently built my first PC and loaded Ubuntu 14.04 on it. In the device, I was using a GTX 660Ti graphics card. It worked alright for a while, but had a few hiccups. Found some responses about updating the drivers using the "Software & Updates -> Additional Drivers" menu. After I updated them, the PC ran fine, until I rebooted. Every time after that I got an error during bootup saying "APCI PPC Probe failed". Finally, after not being able to get the PC to boot in any capacity past that error, I removed the graphics card and am running from the dedicated graphics on my motherboard. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks!

2 Answers 2

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Generally you should use the drivers from the official Ubuntu repositories. But when you have problems with the drivers ... you can install the latest stable drivers from the GPU Drivers PPA.

First uninstall the currently installed NVIDIA drivers.

Highlight the Ubuntu entry in the GRUB boot menu and press the E key.
Add nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the linux line - press F10 to boot.

On login screen press Ctrl+Alt+F1 - enter user name and password - execute :

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*  
sudo reboot  

Install the latest stable NVIDIA drivers for GTX 660 Ti.

Highlight the Ubuntu entry in the GRUB boot menu and press the E key.
Add nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the linux line - press F10 to boot.

On login screen press Ctrl+Alt+F1 - enter user name and password - execute :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-358
sudo reboot
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  • This worked! (for now, I guess...) Before this, the real issue arose when I started using two displays, which will be happening soon as I unbox my new monitor. Jan 4, 2016 at 23:52
  • One other thing, could you explain to me what adding the nouveau.modeset=0 to the end of the linux line means? All the other commands make sense to me except for that Jan 4, 2016 at 23:53
  • @DanStecich : I am glad that it worked for you - NVIDIA GTX 600 series is known for generating problems in some scenarios. NVIDIA improves their drivers continuously ... so you should upgrade the drivers when you experience any of them - there is not much more that you can do. The parameter nouveau.modeset=0 disables the open source nouveau drivers on startup of the operating system to avoid compatibility issues when installing the NVIDIA drivers. Enjoy ubuntu experience ! :)
    – cl-netbox
    Jan 5, 2016 at 8:13
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Hello and welcome on Ask Ubuntu!

Your issue can be divided into two parts:

Firstly what is the exact message you see during boot? If it is "ACPI PCC probe failed, starting version 219"

It is because of the Platform Communication Channel, a new ACPI interface for UEFI.

The 'starting version 219' line means systemd (which is the central system and service manager for Ubuntu) want to inform you the boot process has been started. You don't really have to care about that, it is a bug which hopefully will be fixed.

Then: If I understand you correctly now you have a correctly running system after removed the card.

What you should do is the following:

  1. Edit GRUB (/etc/default/grub) to have time to access its menu during boot:

Place a "#" symbol at the start of line GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

(Source)

  1. You should add nomodeset to GRUB in the previous file:

    For example it should look like:

    GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

  2. Disable the IGP.
  3. Put the card back.
  4. Now it should work.

In rare cases if it does not:

  1. Remove the present nvidia driver.
  2. Take a picture and upload somewhere to see which options do you have in the "Software & Updates -> Additional Drivers" menu.
  3. Install the driver ends with "-updates". (but first I would like to check which one do you have because there is an another option described below.)

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