Ah, the moderators, of course. Bless them.

GEForce is graphics card/chip. Nvidia is company so we're on the right track,

Bad disk eh ? You can still use Knoppix unless they've taken the whole computer away leaving you with just a pair of monitors. Matched monitor should be OK. Myself, I had trouble trying to use a mismatched pair in cinerama mode but I guess I deserved that.

While you're waiting, if you still have Internet access, you should go onto the 'untu wiki and forums (they are vast) and see if you can find out which driver (the free nouveau or the proprietary driver) 'untu installs.

Use the Ubuntu package site to find out which version of the driver Ubuntu Manky Manatee (Lame Lama, Kackling Kookaburra, whatever) comes with and then the Nvidia site itself to find out if your card/chip needs a newer driver.

If it does, you might try a distribution named aptosid instead.