[SOLVED] Black Screen during/after Driver update

[THpapi]

TLDR downloaded and ran the latest driver from Nvidia (driver only not Geforce experience, Custom Install) during the final part of the driver installation process when the screen flashes a couple times, the 2nd blink it just remained black, I waited like that for a long time and the screen never came back on.... What should I do?

Older Ryzen 3 don't have the model on the top of my head
Asus B350 mobo
GTX 970


Long Story: Helping my friend upgrade his pc, he bought it from another friend of his, it has a very low end Ryzen on a B350 with like a gt1030, and a single HDD.... So I got him a m.2 NVME drive, a network card, and then replaced his gt1030 with my old GTX 970, reinstalled windows in a completely offline state, manually installed the network card drivers, everythings going fine here, downloaded the nvidia drivers and thats when I got the first weird issue, Windows defender stopped the download and I had to make it continue anway.... So then I went to run the driver and it had an error and crashed halfway through, looked up the error and it said bad download file, makes sense since the download got messed with by windows defender, redownloaded the driver, running driver, working fine, driver only, custom install, Windows defender message again.... very unusual for official Nvidia driver.... allow anyway... going fine, screen blinks once, fine, screen blinks again, stays black, watch it for like 20 minutes try the mouse and keyboard to make sure its not just screen saver... screen is black, turn off PC go to bed.
anyone ever experience this before?

 

[Aidy-M]

Boot into safe mode, go to device manager find the GPU, right-click, properties, driver, and click on roll back driver.

Reboot and don't install the latest driver.

I've been having the same issue.

 

[THpapi]

Boot into safe mode, go to device manager find the GPU, right-click, properties, driver, and click on roll back driver.

Reboot and don't install the latest driver.

I've been having the same issue.

Thanks, I will try this, do you know if the latest driver for the GTX970 is having some specific issue? Or does it have to do with that particular hardware combo? I mean... Eventually he's going to want to update his driver, I think 900 series is still supported right?

 

[Aidy-M]

Thanks, I will try this, do you know if the latest driver for the GTX970 is having some specific issue? Or does it have to do with that particular hardware combo? I mean... Eventually he's going to want to update his driver, I think 900 series is still supported right?

I think that they are still supported.

Latest driver link is below
https://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/driverResults.aspx/187349/en-uk

What OS are you running, is it windows 11 by any chance?

 

[DRagor]

Windows defender warned you twice - and you disregarded it twice? Never a good idea.
Anyway, did you downloaded from here? Version 512.15? It seems like all versions above 472.12 are DCH versions which will not work with normal system, so you need 472,12 standard (works on both W10 and W11).

 

[THpapi]

I think that they are still supported.

Latest driver link is below
https://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/driverResults.aspx/187349/en-uk

What OS are you running, is it windows 11 by any chance?

Windows 10 pro, yep I got it from Nvidia's site, not the UK one, but yeah I got the legit ones

 

[THpapi]

Windows defender warned you twice - and you disregarded it twice? Never a good idea.
Anyway, did you downloaded from here? Version 512.15? It seems like all versions above 472.12 are DCH versions which will not work with normal system, so you need 472,12 standard (works on both W10 and W11).

Well I got the files from the Nvidia website, I'm 1000% certain. I figured maybe since Windows was installed offline, and I had only just connected it to the internet, seconds prior to going to install the graphics driver, I figured maybe Window's Defender wasn't updated properly or something. Yes I was trying to use the 512.15, Its just a regular old PC with windows 10 pro, youre saying I should roll back the driver then try 472.12? And then not update the driver anymore? Thanks for the help with the research on this.

 

[Aidy-M]

Well I got the files from the Nvidia website, I'm 1000% certain. I figured maybe since Windows was installed offline, and I had only just connected it to the internet, seconds prior to going to install the graphics driver, I figured maybe Window's Defender wasn't updated properly or something. Yes I was trying to use the 512.15, Its just a regular old PC with windows 10 pro, youre saying I should roll back the driver then try 472.12? And then not update the driver anymore? Thanks for the help with the research on this.

That's what I would suggest and that is currently where I am at with mine.

 

[DRagor]

I figured maybe Window's Defender wasn't updated properly or something

That makes sense. Still, to be safe you should stop driver download, wait till defender updates itself and retry driver download.

Its just a regular old PC with windows 10 pro, youre saying I should roll back the driver then try 472.12?

If you search driver database for older versions you could see that all newer then 472.12 only show if you select DCH version. Not sure why it is this way. Might have something to do with W11 perhaps.

And then not update the driver anymore?

Not necessarily anymore, just for now. As far graphics drivers go my motto is "not update until some game refuses to work (properly)". 900 series are still supported fully by NVidia so I guess there will be new drivers sooner or later that will work for everybody.

 

[THpapi]

That makes sense. Still, to be safe you should stop driver download, wait till defender updates itself and retry driver download.

If you search driver database for older versions you could see that all newer then 472.12 only show if you select DCH version. Not sure why it is this way. Might have something to do with W11 perhaps.

Not necessarily anymore, just for now. As far graphics drivers go my motto is "not update until some game refuses to work (properly)". 900 series are still supported fully by NVidia so I guess there will be new drivers sooner or later that will work for everybody.

Thanks for the advice, I will try when I get home

 

[THpapi]

That makes sense. Still, to be safe you should stop driver download, wait till defender updates itself and retry driver download.

If you search driver database for older versions you could see that all newer then 472.12 only show if you select DCH version. Not sure why it is this way. Might have something to do with W11 perhaps.

Not necessarily anymore, just for now. As far graphics drivers go my motto is "not update until some game refuses to work (properly)". 900 series are still supported fully by NVidia so I guess there will be new drivers sooner or later that will work for everybody.

Now I'm having trouble doing anything, the gpu seems bricked.... when I first turned it on I was getting video out until It got into windows now no video out... any ideas? Should I move it to a different pcie slot and then slot a different gpu in slot 1 for video out and then roll back the driver? Will that work?

 

[THpapi]

Okay problem resolved, plugged a working gpu into pcie slot 1, bricked gpu in pcie slot 2, video out from working gpu, installed driver 472.12 as suggested, turned off pc, removed gpu from slot 1, moved gpu from slot 2 to slot 1, gpu works now!

 

[DRagor]

Okay problem resolved, plugged a working gpu into pcie slot 1, bricked gpu in pcie slot 2, video out from working gpu, installed driver 472.12 as suggested, turned off pc, removed gpu from slot 1, moved gpu from slot 2 to slot 1, gpu works now!

Dang, lots of work for something that should be as simple as installing driver. Hopefully it will no longer cause such trouble.

 

[hypdup10]

Long Story: Helping my friend upgrade his pc, he bought it from another friend of his, it has a very low end Ryzen on a B350 with like a gt1030, and a single HDD.... So I got him a m.2 NVME drive, a network card, and then replaced his gt1030 with my old GTX 970

wow where do I get a friend like u? 😳