How do I get nvidia drivers working on an Ideapad z570?

Question

I have a Lenovo z570 i3, Ive installed the packages available for nvidia and my graphics card is still not recognised?

It displays the following error upon trying to configure it

You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver. Please edit your X configuration file and restart the X server

Any ideas?

Solution 1

You laptop has a hybrid card, you have a intel + nvidia card running in your system, the drivers you are installing for you nvidia are not working correctly because they are not being loaded on startup.

You Intel card is running as primary so you have 2 options:

1) If you BIOS allows to turn off the Intel card and leave the nVidia one running then the drivers will work correctly;

2) Use software that enables you to use some functions of your nVidia card, its called Bumblebee and its largelly discussed on use/installation, etc, on the site.

Solution 2

with the Z570 there is a switch on the front of the laptop flick it and then you can make the Nvidia your primary graphics card in the nvidia settings

Comments

[Uri Herrera]

BY any chance is your laptop using Nvidia Optimus techonology? (Intel Graphics+ Nvidia Graphics)

[lgarzo]

I am not sure about the datasheet (lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/ideapad/z-series/z570/…)... but could it be that no nVIDIA graphics is included?!

[Lekensteyn]

GT540M GPU, i7 CPU. This is certainly an Optimus model. See Bruno's answer.

[lgarzo]

@Lekensteyn I'm far from arguing with Bruno, I am just stuck at the i3 processor, since not all i3 ones have the nVIDIA chip. But if there is a big sticker somewhere on the chassis...

[Lekensteyn]

@lgarzo The i3 GPU can still have a dGPU. If you've a nVidia card, have you tried Bumblebee?