I've tried tarballs as an attempt to install and run 3d graphics on my GeForce4 but recently I've hosed my system completely and now even the generic nv driver won't work.

Q. How to uninstall .tar.gz files? Nothing in the readme or man

Q. How to reinstall originall generic nv drivers as installed from the mdk9.1 cd?

sometimes tarballs allow you to use make uninstall from the source directory
and as of the nv drivers re-run the X-Configurator..

That is a problem...

You can re-run the Xconfigurator, and that will re-write your XF86Config file such that the NV drivers are installed.

I would suggest that you use the RPMs :
http://hvdkooij.xs4all.nl/software/U...e_Support.html

These are source rpms, which is what you want since your kernel version is probably not the same as what they built the rpms against.

To rebuild source rpms do :
rpmbuild --rebuild [name of rpm]
This will output the rebuilt rpm somewhere (on RH, /usr/src/Redhat/BUILD/SRPMS, I think).

You can then install the rebuilt rpms with the normal rpm -ivh command.

I would try that first, then run Xconfigurator.

Cheers