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I bought a laptop with ubuntu and Nvidia geforce 820M 2GB graphics about 7 or 8 months back. Since then I've stuck with ubuntu and didnt install windows.

However, I havent installed my graphics driver for nvidia on this system and I'm using the stock one (Intel HD 4700) presumably. I tried installing the graphics driver a couple of months back but due to lack of proper experience ( I still dont know much) with ubuntu, I wasnt able to troubleshoot all sorts of problems which started occurring after installing the nvidia driver. Ultimately, I ended up restoring the factory settings a couple of times.

Recently, one of my colleagues advised me to install the graphics driver as he believed that if my GPU was left unused for quite a time, it would not function if at a later date I actually needed it.

Does any truth lies in his believing ?

Should I actually make efforts to install the graphics driver ?

I am asking this because last time I tried it took me nearly 3 or 4 days to ultimately fail in my attempt (Since I'm just a casual ubuntu user). Problems with touchpad to wifi and bluetooth started arising upon installation of the same, which had me freaked out. So another attempt can possibly break my already set and working system (I have installed a couple of important tools reqd for work).

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Firstly, your friend is completely incorrect, low use of computer components doesn't break them, high use does. Your graphics chip is still embedded on the board and still gets power, so it shouldn't suffer from dead capacitors or the like, so over stressing a component such as your GPU is much more likely to slowly break it, due to high/fluctuating voltage. It is important though, that hardware left unpowered for long periods of time can become faulty, due to components losing their magneticity or charge.

Secondly, if you have no use for installing your GPU, don't. It will just waste away your GPU on menial tasks, that the intel GPU can handle just fine. If you however at some point would like to game or do 3D modelling or the like, installing the GPU might be a good idea.

Should you want to install it anyway this guide has several ways for you to install the drivers, there is also one in there for people not wildly familiar with linux. :)

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    Thanks. Is there some graphic utility which can handle the problems arising after installation ? Or some guide for troubleshooting for absolute noobs ? I am not really into command line. So something which could do the job with minimum command line would be awesome. Jun 3, 2015 at 5:52
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    Well it really shouldn't break anything, as long as it doesn't overwrite any other libraries during install. But should problems arise, ubuntu has their own troubleshooting guide, for various different issues: help.ubuntu.com/community/TroubleShootingGuide
    – user38331
    Jun 3, 2015 at 6:01
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    Also as for installing graphical things and the like on unix systems, it has never really been an easy task and as with most things on unix systems that aren't out of the box functionality, it requires a bit of console work. However the guide I initially linked you, seems to be somewhat easy, install the driver with the aptitude gui and then set the system to use that driver instead of the default one. :)
    – user38331
    Jun 3, 2015 at 6:12

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