Not so fast. When I re-boot now, the system either boot up to the music
before the desktop loads and then plays the music endlessly OR boots up
to the first Ubuntu purple screen with the dots and then my monitor
displays a no signal message.

Beginning to sound like the graphics card is either not making proper
contact with the slot, is faulty in some way, or is being starved of
power ( this would only show up when the full drivers are installed ).

What's the specification of the PSU they put in this rig ???

The psu (power supply) is thermaltake tr2, 430 watt.

That PSU is bare minimum for the NVidia 220 card and it may be that
the rest of the hardware is pushing it a tad too much. That would
explain the intermittent nature of this problem.

According to NVidia the 220 needs a 400W PSU but with a 12V rail which
can push out 25A - that Thermaltake PSU has twin rails of 14A and 15A
which doesn't leave much over for the rest of the system ???

Get back to the builder with this and see what they say - I'd have
gone for a 600W PSU in this rig myself !! Apart from anything else
that 430W one is going to be run close to maximum and that's not good
for efficiency or longevity !!

The builder may argue otherwise of course but if they'll agree to a
switch for a 600W PSU for just the difference in cost then I'd go for
it

I talked them into it. They ran hardware tests and found nothing
wrong. Then they started to blame Ubuntu so I reminded them that my
wife's computer which is virtually identical to mine runs Ubuntu
perfectly. Except her machine has a 500 watt PSU.

So now I have a 600 watt PSU. The first time I got the computer home I
had to hold down the shift key while booting (only the first time).
It's been running fine since then. Here's hoping.

Time will tell if the 600W PSU sorts it - let us know how it goes over
the next few days.....

Well I thought it had, but if I try to enable desktop effects, I have
trouble booting up. It goes to just before the login screen and then my
monitor displays no signal. Took me 6 tries to get booted up so I could
change back to none. I play farmville on facebook, and I cannot play in
full screen. When I try, my entire screen goes white and the mouse
freezes. I don't understand how they could test my hardware and keep
saying everything is fine.

Looking more like it's a driver issue or the card itself at fault. Try
the OpenGL drivers below and see if it helps ..

developer.nvidia.com/object/opengl_driver.html

It does not seem to me that the GTS 220 card is shown anywhere as being
suitable for these drivers. We have a second linux box with the same
video card and Ubuntu, and it is running fine.

I would not know how to install the driver anyway, or how to revert back
to the nvidia proprietary driver if the openGL driver does not work.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/268148-33-9800

Maybe because it's an older card running at 64-bit and some are 256-bit
now...Anyway see the link above, or such Google.

Hmm, interesting. I just came across this in my kernel log:
Oct 20 09:27:50 bruce-desktop kernel: [ 288.987659] Disabling lock
debugging due to kernel taint
Oct 20 09:27:50 bruce-desktop kernel: [ 289.585883] NVRM: The NVIDIA
probe routine was not called for 1 device(s).
Oct 20 09:27:50 bruce-desktop kernel: [ 289.585886] NVRM: This can
occur when a driver such as rivafb, nvidiafb or
Oct 20 09:27:50 bruce-desktop kernel: [ 289.585887] NVRM: rivatv was
loaded and obtained ownership of the NVIDIA
Oct 20 09:27:50 bruce-desktop kernel: [ 289.585888] NVRM: device(s).
Oct 20 09:27:50 bruce-desktop kernel: [ 289.585890] NVRM: Try unloading
the rivafb, nvidiafb or rivatv kernel module
Oct 20 09:27:50 bruce-desktop kernel: [ 289.585891] NVRM: (and/or
reconfigure your kernel without rivafb/nvidiafb
Oct 20 09:27:50 bruce-desktop kernel: [ 289.585892] NVRM: support),
then try loading the NVIDIA kernel module again.
Oct 20 09:27:50 bruce-desktop kernel: [ 289.585894] NVRM: No NVIDIA
graphics adapter probed!

What does all this mean? I did do a re-install of Ubuntu 64 bit myself,
and am using the Nvidia proprietary driver.

The link below explains the 'kernel taint' nicely...

www.linuxforums.org/.../...odule-taint-kernel.html

... basically it's impossible to debug errors if proprietary modules
are installed that there's no source code for. Sorta ties in with that
other long-running thread in here.....

As for the same card working fine in the other PC - even if they have
identical hardware in all other respects it's possible for one of them
to be less stable than the other. As hardware is pushed to greater
levels then the vagaries of manufacturing can have greater effects.
Only way to be totally sure if it's the card would be to swap the two
over - if the instability stays then it's either software or other
hardware at fault but if the fault moves to the other PC then it's the
card itself at fault.

Intermittent faults are the pits to track down unfortunately and in
many cases there's no actual 'fault' - it's just tolerances in parts
being a shade too far apart somewhere :-( Not reassuring I know and
you've already done a lot of the troubleshooting with no success.

FWIW I fully expect you'd have the same issue if using Windows but
your supplier is bound to pick on Ubuntu as it's an unknown for them.
Any chance installing a Windows OS to test this theory out ??

I play the facebook apps also-and never on full screen-
it freezes up.
I have an up-to date system with dual core processor,
nvidia graphics card-4gig ram,etc.....

I think its the programming language? they use-php
Constant hitches,stalling,freeze ups, etc...
and the servers they use are always over-loaded.
(due to the amount of traffic)

I hear similar things from most everyone else on facebook.

It worked full screen today. The thing that bugs me is that my wife has
a near identical computer and hers works perfectly.