OK, to really figure out what is wrong with an installation, here is what you have to do:
# Guru3D.com Forums – How to properly uninstall detonators/catalysts. This is apparently a must. These drivers really leave junk everywhere. Read the guide above first
# “Driver Cleaner”:http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/. This is a shareware program that cleans up junk on your machine. Download it.
# “NVidia”:http://nvidia.com. Download the drivers that you want from nVidia’s site or whereever.
# Uninstall the driver from the control panel. Pretty straightforward, but that’s not enough.
# Reboot the machine and push F8 and go into safe mode Windows
# Run Drive Cleaner mention above to clean out INF files that tell Windows how to install things
# For nVidia cards, Windows Update will automatically install a new driver for you, so you have to disable the network (!!!?) since Windows is behind on drivers. Right clicking on “My Network Places.” Once there, spot your internet connection, If its a LAN connection, disable it temporarily. Simply right click on it and click on “disable.”
# Reboot to regular Windows and when it asks about finding a driver, then run the nVidia setup and reboot again and you should be up and running

One response to “Starting off fresh to debug nVidia driver problems”

  1. a little ludwig goes a long way Avatar

    Rich’s not-so-random walk thru the tech world
    Great recent posts from Rich:Cleaning up Nvidia driver problems Part I and Part II.  Sadly if you want to live on the bleeding edge of video cards, you need to learn way too much about maintaining the drivers.Anandtech system guides — t…

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