Black screen after nvidia driver install

[Melhisedek]

Man this is driving me crazy.

e8400
8800 GTS 512 MB
P5Q Deluxe
Vista 64 Ultimate SP1
LG L204WT TFT monitor

I put this rig together recently and installed latest official driver 178.24 for my graphics card.

Today I read about the new Nv driver 180.48 which is also WHQL and wanted to install that one. I uninstalled old drivers, got into safe mode used Driver sweeper and rebooted again. Installed 180 drivers and rebooted when prompted. I see boot letters, than Vista loading bar and than screen goes black and stays black... I hear all the starting up sounds but no picture, like the monitor is not getting signal. I reboot using keyboard, same thing. I get into safe mode (which works fine) remove drivers and reinstall. Same thing. I check all the cables, same thing. I check both monitor and card in another rig no problems there...

I remove all the drivers and install old driver... same thing... black screen on startup. Sometimes it would get into the windows and show the desktop and after it loaded sidebar it would go black screen again...

Finally I get to system restore and roll back one day, everything is working just fine like it did this morning before I tried to update the damn driver.

I'm afraid of messing with it again but it must be some kind of driver issue. What is strange is that I used exactly the same driver 178.24 and after installing it it didn't work, after using system restore no problems.

I have 750W Corsair PSU, and plenty of cooling so it can't be that either...

Thank you for your time!

[LitHiuM]

How long do you wait before you "reboot using keyboard"?
It can take some time for a new driver to initialise for some reason that only Vista knows...
Try waiting a bit longer. Go make a coffee or something and see if you are at the login screen when you get back :)
If that fails, then it may be another issue - perhaps some software incompatability.

Good luck!

[Melhisedek]

Oh... didn't know that... I wait for like 1-2 minutes I think. I'm almost 100% that it is some software incompatibility as both card and monitor work both in another rig and also in mine after I have rolled back system restore

[LitHiuM]

OK. Then it is "simply" a job of comparing what is installed before and after the system restore. Find what is not there in the restore point but is there after you take it from restore to fully functional. Perhaps something that wants to start when windows starts.

[nekrosoft13]

try again, but without the driver cleaner. those type of programs can sometimes screw things up.

I personally never use them, never have issues. Just normal uninstall.

[LitHiuM]

I always use Driver Sweeper. Never had issues :)

[Melhisedek]

System restore point was from about midnight last night. Only thing that changed is Windows defender update I installed this morning, right after that I tried to install drivers. So virtually nothing changed since the windows restore point

[LitHiuM]

Interesting. Just installed the defender updates and some other "important" updates and no problem. *scratches head*

[Melhisedek]

It gets better... just formated. Tried installing driver on a fresh install of Vista. still the same thing :( Now I don't have a restore point to fall back to :(

[LitHiuM]

Ouch! Sorry to hear that :(

[Melhisedek]

Turns out it was pretty simple... It was TV-out cable :) Picture was forwarded to my TV right after boot :) I pulled it out and set Monitor as primary and all is fine and dandy now :P

Thanks for your help guys!

[LitHiuM]

Good news :)