Video problems with Nvidia 6100, older e-machines

[Jeepster]

HI all,
I"m new here and to Linux but I wanted to share what I just learned so that somebody else doesn't have to go through everything I just did.

First off, I have an e-machines 3642 that came with a built in Nvidia 6100. After installing Cinnamon my video was really erratic and would crash if I tried to run a game like Age of Empires. Since my machine was sadly lacking in memory, I upgraded and maxed it out. Video didn't improve any. I tried switching from Nouveau to another driver (304.137) with no luck. Nouveau worked ok for internet but games were out of the question. I was regularly updating everything, but on the last Mint update my whole system crashed resulting in the black screen. Tried nomodeset and various other remedies mentioned in the forums but it never did work again. I was ready to scrap the whole thing at this point and get a newer computer.

Since my built in video card was kinda crappy I gave it one last chance and bought a cheap GEForce GT710 and installed it. Then I downloaded the latest 64 bit version of Mint and reinstalled it and everything started working again! I installed the Nvidia Driver (384.111) that was recommended for the card and now things are really working good.

I updated the Wine files and tried running Age of Empires again and it's running as good as it did in Windows!

I'm not sure why the Mint update bombed out my system, but it was probably on the verge of death anyway.

[kc1di]

Hello Jeepster and Welcome to Linux Mint Forums,
Good to hear of your success story and glad you got the rig going.
Enjoy Linux