How To: Fix Nvidia graphics issue in Ubuntu 12.04

Since updating my Ubuntu system to 12.04 I have been experiencing problems with the machine hanging. After spending considerable time reading through forum threads, I found that the solution was to remove the Nvidia driver that was installed via the Ubuntu repositories (v295.40) and manually install the latest driver from Nvidia (v302.07).

The first step was to download the driver from  the Nvidia website:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-amd64-302.07-driver.html

Make sure that the file is executable:

$ chmod 755 NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-302.07.run

Before running the desktop environment needed to be stopped:

$ sudo stop lightdm

Then using Ctrl + Alt + F6 to get to another command prompt I ran the file as root:

$ sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-302.07.run

The installer was able to detect that I had dropped back to the Nouveau driver and gave an option to disable it on next reboot. I agreed to this option then rebooted using:

$ sudo shutdown -r now

This time the system had booted up without the Nvidia or Nouveau drivers so I repeated the steps to stop the graphical environment and run the installer again. On completion I was able to reboot my system into what is now, once again, a stable system.