just did restart after updates and

if you boot to root recovery mode you can run:

sudo lshw -C display

alternatively can you name your video card.

Thanks

here what i got *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430]
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: e
       bus info: pci@0000:00:0d.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:21 memory:fb000000-fbffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff(prefetchable) memory:fc000000-fcffffff memory:80000000-8001ffff(prefetchable)
I REALLY THINK YOU SHOULD REREAD MY QUESTION !!

here what i got *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430]
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: e
       bus info: pci@0000:00:0d.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm msi bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:21 memory:fb000000-fbffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff(prefetchable) memory:fc000000-fcffffff memory:80000000-8001ffff(prefetchable)
I REALLY THINK YOU SHOULD REREAD MY QUESTION !!

 I only have ubuntu 9.10 installed on my pc. with swappness =3 installed when starting or restarting my pc it goes strate to desktop in 33 -40 seconds . my pc is a desktop.

ok boot to recovery root console and run:

apt-get --purge remove nvidia*; apt-get --purge autoremove; shutdown -r now

then reboot, you should now get a desktop. I have the same card in my desktop and the driver didn't survive the upgrade.

Once in the desktop you can use this guide:
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/install-nvidia-graphics-drivers-190-42-in-ubuntu-karmicjauntyintrepidhardy.html

To install the 190 driver which works AMAZINGLY with the card. Reboot after installing the driver.

If you do NOT get a desktop after the reboot then boot back to root recovery mode and run:

apt-get --purge remove xserver-xorg-video-nv

and you will force your system to use the vesa driver (failsafe). The first reboot should make you ok though.

i was able to use terminal and install the190 drivers. the disk utility says i have 115 gb free space with 4.9 for swap and 4.9 for extended ,which should leave me with 105 free space, but the system monitor says 97% free space, the disk usage says total drive space is 105 gb with 102 gb available .. i have a 120 gb hard drive . over time of doing reinstalls and updates the gb have just gone away . where do they go and how can they be got back..??

boot to live CD and run an fsck to fix the disk. This should free up space

Check:
man fsck

for options, tell the system to fix any issues.

 i ran the live cd check disk ::: got no problems ... opened terminal entered man fsck it spit out a lot of info ,,, then i re-entered man fsck-a and this what i got The exit code returned by fsck is the sum of the following conditions:
            0 - No errors
            1 - File system errors corrected
            2 - System should be rebooted
            4 - File system errors left uncorrected
            8 - Operational error
            16 - Usage or syntax error
            32 - Fsck canceled by user request
            128 - Shared library error

re started let it finish greg@greg:~$ fsck-a
fsck-a: command not found
greg@greg:~$ fsck
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.16
e2fsck 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
/dev/sda1 is mounted.

WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause
SEVERE filesystem damage.

Do you really want to continue (y/n)? yes

fsck.ext4: Permission denied while trying to open /dev/sda1
You must have r/w access to the filesystem or be root
greg@greg:~$ sudo fsck
[sudo] password for greg:
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.16
e2fsck 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
/dev/sda1 is mounted.

WARNING!!! Running e2fsck on a mounted filesystem may cause
SEVERE filesystem damage.

Do you really want to continue (y/n)? yes

/dev/sda1: recovering journal
Clearing orphaned inode 107 (uid=1000, gid=1000, mode=0140755, size=0)
/dev/sda1: clean, 153961/7028736 files, 1193413/28103701 blocks
greg@greg:~$
 DON`T KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS MAYBE YOU DO

ok!! that was interesting ;; found 0.01% continuom blocks .. so am i to under stand that the hard drive is fine and i am getting false reading in the programs ?

Thanks actionparsnip, that solved my question.