NVIDIA Driver Installed but nvidia-smi fails - Ubuntu kernel 6.17 DKMS installed module not loading

Ubuntu Version: 24.04.3
Kernel Version:6.8.0-100-generic
GPU Model:
NVIDIA Corporation Device 233b (rev a1)
NVIDIA Corporation GK208B [GeForce GT 710] (rev a1)
NVIDIA Corporation GK208 HDMI/DP Audio Controller (rev a1)
Driver Installed: nvidia-driver-590
Secure Boot: Disabled

Problem:
nvidia-smi shows driver communication failure.

Commands Output:

lsmod | grep nvidia
dkms status
uname -r
mokutil --sb-state
dmesg | tail -40

What I Tried:

  • Purged drivers
  • Reinstalled drivers
  • Disabled secure boot
  • Disabled nouveau
  • Installed headers and dkms

Goal:
Running GPU for AI workload (Whisper / CUDA)

The 590 series driver is not usable with your card, which is Kepler SM3.5. The last supported driver is the 470 driver and the last supported Cuda Toolkit is Cuda 11.X.