Question BSOD after attempting to install Nvidia driver, will a Windows reinstall be required?

[Paracosm26]

I've just installed Windows 10 on my new computer with a B450 chipset, AMD Ryzen 5 CPU and an Nvidia GeForce GT 730.

After installing the drivers for the chipset, I installed, or at least tried to install the Nvidia drivers. I ran the Nvidia setup program but it said something along the lines of incompatibility despite the driver package definitely being for Windows 10 x64 and is the latest version and the graphics card I put in my computer is on the list of supported graphics cards in the description when downloading the driver package.

So, I tried installing the driver manually by selecting in device manager the Microsoft basic video adapter and selected update driver and selected the option to let me pick from my computer the driver which I did, and the Nvidia GeForce GT 730 appears in the list about 5 times over and I selected the first one, and I got a message saying it's not recommended I install it, but I proceed anyway. And after a minute I get a BSOD and then after it restarts, it won't get past the boot screen without a BSOD and when startup repair is launched, there is no option for safe mode and clicking on System Restore brings up a message saying no Windows installation specified.

I can't even make it boot into safe mode so I can roll back the driver with the F8 option as I know that was removed and you have to press a key combination in Windows when you reboot to bring up the safe mode option which is of no use when it won't get past the boot screen.

Because of this, is a reinstall inevitable or is there a way to boot into safe mode or otherwise remove this driver?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Make sure your Windows 10 install is fully updated.

 

[Paracosm26]

Make sure your Windows 10 install is fully updated.

I've only just installed it it this afternoon and it's the latest version of Windows 10.

 

[onespeedbiker]

When you say say you can't make it into safe mode, what does that mean? You should be able to get to the safe mode menu, included is a choice of booting with 640x480 mode (aka VGA mode). That should get you into windows.

 

[Paracosm26]

When you say say you can't make it into safe mode, what does that mean? You should be able to get to the safe mode menu, included is a choice of booting with 640x480 mode (aka VGA mode). That should get you into windows.

Pressing F10 to access the menu to boot to Safe Mode does nothing as Microsoft removed the F10 thing at boot up in Windows 10.

 

[onespeedbiker]

There are a number of ways to get into safe mode with windows 10 https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10 Once you get into the Startup Settings, you can either go to safe mode and uninstall the video drivers or choose the low-resolution mode and boot into windows, where you can uninstall the offending drivers also

 

[Paracosm26]

There are a number of ways to get into safe mode with windows 10 https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10 Once you get into the Startup Settings, you can either go to safe mode and uninstall the video drivers or choose the low-resolution mode and boot into windows, where you can uninstall the offending drivers also

Cheers, I'll try that, I just can't believe a driver Nvidia says is compatible with Windows 10 seems to be actually not compatible.

I could understand a legacy graphics card like the GeForce 7000 series from about 12 or 13 years ago being incompatible with Windows 10, but a graphics card I bought brand new this year? I smell a rat somewhere.

 

[onespeedbiker]

This is not a new problem. I offered the linked advice but never got a return post so I don't know if it worked or not. You should try this after the NVIDIA installer says it could not find a compatible graphics card and you exit the installer. You can even remove the program in programs and features as NVIDIA uninstaller always leave the drivers behind. https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/gt-730-driver-compatibility-problem.3479250/

BTW, the card is 5 years old..

 

[onespeedbiker]

BTW, the card is 5 years old.. You might want to try an earlier driver. I am using the below linked driver (with a GT 640) with no issues. Make sure if you install this driver you click the "Clean Install" box , after the installer says it is ready to install the driver; this supposedly will delete the other NVIDIA drivers that have been installed.
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4678/~/geforce-hotfix-driver-version-398.18 this link shows it is indeed compatible with your card. https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/geforce-398-11-whql-driver-download.html

 

[Paracosm26]

Fixed, I took the advice of getting into safe mode and wiping out the bad driver, then installed a driver from 2017 which was included on the included installation CD and that worked just fine.

(I did originally try installing a driver from this year based on the recommendations of always have installed the most up to date drivers).

 

[onespeedbiker]

Great! NVIDIA has stopped supporting it's Fermi architecture, so many of the updated drivers are an attempt by NVIDIA to create composite drivers with added security features. If you have a fermi series GPU https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4656/~/list-of-fermi-series-geforce-gpus the last performance upgrade was in April 2018. So many of these older drivers are more compatible with Windows 10 and do a better job of supporting these older cards than the new ones.