- Jul 27, 2022
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HELP!!! NVIDIA driver update corrupting my OS, forcing full wipe
Here’s my situation and details of the issue, as well as troubleshooting that I have already tried. I hope someone out there somewhere might have an idea of the problem, as my endless search on google doesn’t seem to produce any results.
I recently built my first ever computer, with these parts/specs (all brand new):
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming/Wifi
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900x 12-core/24-thread
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2x16GB)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB (Founder’s Edition)
PSU: Corsair RM850x
I have an M.2 and 2 HDDs, but OS and most programs are installed on a Samsung 870 QVO 1TB SSD.
I use my SONY X900H 4K TV as my display with an hdmi 2.1 cable and running Windows 11 Pro.
Since I finished the build at the end of May (2022), everything has been running perfectly fine. However, about a week ago I saw there was an update for the GPU driver through the NVIDIA Experience. I selected to do the “Express Installation”. At about 90% of the install, my TV/display went black and after about 5 minutes, had no change and wasn’t reacting to anything. The display input was still correct, so I assumed the PC just froze up, and did a hard shutdown through the front I/O.
When I turned it back on, I got the Republic Of Gamers (ROG) boot screen with “Please press DEL or F2 to enter UEFI BIOS” underneath and then a loading circle. However, at the next step where my PC usually booted up the OS and showed the login screen, it instead would show a black screen, sometimes with a gray bar at the top, sometimes a partial distorted image, or even a flickering frozen version of the previous screen with ROG logo and loading circle. Tried multiple shutdowns, including turning off the PSU itself and letting sit for about an hour, but after turning back on, would be the exact same issue, OS would fail to boot.
To check it's not the TV or other “display” issues, I tried unplugging and re-inserting the HDMI cord, changing HDMI ports on TV, as well as unplugging all USB devices connected (per some potential fixes online). No success. I then looked further into troubleshooting and found some ways of deleting the new driver file and reverting back to the older one, but done through the Windows UI, which I didn’t have access to since my computer still wouldn’t boot to the OS, so any such “fix” wasn’t an option. Since I could access the initial boot of the motherboard, I figured that was the only way for me. I also got a USB containing Windows 11. After accessing the UEFI BIOS Advanced Mode, I was able to change the boot from the SSD to the USB, to get to a fresh Windows install menu.
Upon further research online, found there is a “Repair my machine” option in bottom left at the “Install” screen, which some people apparently had success with. Tried it, had zero effect. I then went into the troubleshooting menus, tried basically every option, including “Restoring” the PC to a previous save point, which had been about 2 days before. Still nothing. After trying all the different ways to I came across to fix it, nothing worked, and my friend recommended I just do a wipe and reinstall Windows. So that’s what I did. I had feared that the GPU itself might be having issues, but given that I was navigating all the Windows install menus and everything afterwards without an issue, I eliminated a faulty GPU as a potential hardware issue. But I wanted to be sure, so I had a friend bring over his RTX 3060 to try that, but got the exact same boot issue, which led me to believe it’s NOT the GPU itself. With my motherboard, I also tried the other PCIe slot, with exact same result.
So after doing a full wipe of the SSD and reinstalling Windows on it, PC was running just like before. However, when I went to the NVIDIA experience again and tried the “Express” install again, exact same issue came up. Towards end of installation, screen went black and PC froze. I shut down, and when I booted, it would once again fail to boot the OS. So I wiped again. Once back up and running, instead of using the “Express Installation” through the NVIDIA experience, I now went to their website and tried to get the driver update directly, same issue. So after wiping AGAIN, thinking it might be something in the newest driver update code, chose to instead find and download the couple of months older version of the driver I was running the last two months. Well, same issue. Failed install, black screen, corrupted OS.
So at this point, after yet another wipe, as that seems to be the only way to have my PC function, I chose to just not update the driver. With wiping my PC, I went on to re-install a majority of the programs I had, along with multiple driver updates for different equipment. All without a single issue. So at this point I am lost on the next step. I have my PC running fine, however, I will need to update the GPU driver in the near future to have access to certain features in other programs, and want to do so without corrupting my C: drive and my OS, and having to wipe again. Any idea what it could be??? Thank you in advance for any help.
Here’s my situation and details of the issue, as well as troubleshooting that I have already tried. I hope someone out there somewhere might have an idea of the problem, as my endless search on google doesn’t seem to produce any results.
I recently built my first ever computer, with these parts/specs (all brand new):
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix X570-E Gaming/Wifi
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900x 12-core/24-thread
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2x16GB)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB (Founder’s Edition)
PSU: Corsair RM850x
I have an M.2 and 2 HDDs, but OS and most programs are installed on a Samsung 870 QVO 1TB SSD.
I use my SONY X900H 4K TV as my display with an hdmi 2.1 cable and running Windows 11 Pro.
Since I finished the build at the end of May (2022), everything has been running perfectly fine. However, about a week ago I saw there was an update for the GPU driver through the NVIDIA Experience. I selected to do the “Express Installation”. At about 90% of the install, my TV/display went black and after about 5 minutes, had no change and wasn’t reacting to anything. The display input was still correct, so I assumed the PC just froze up, and did a hard shutdown through the front I/O.
When I turned it back on, I got the Republic Of Gamers (ROG) boot screen with “Please press DEL or F2 to enter UEFI BIOS” underneath and then a loading circle. However, at the next step where my PC usually booted up the OS and showed the login screen, it instead would show a black screen, sometimes with a gray bar at the top, sometimes a partial distorted image, or even a flickering frozen version of the previous screen with ROG logo and loading circle. Tried multiple shutdowns, including turning off the PSU itself and letting sit for about an hour, but after turning back on, would be the exact same issue, OS would fail to boot.
To check it's not the TV or other “display” issues, I tried unplugging and re-inserting the HDMI cord, changing HDMI ports on TV, as well as unplugging all USB devices connected (per some potential fixes online). No success. I then looked further into troubleshooting and found some ways of deleting the new driver file and reverting back to the older one, but done through the Windows UI, which I didn’t have access to since my computer still wouldn’t boot to the OS, so any such “fix” wasn’t an option. Since I could access the initial boot of the motherboard, I figured that was the only way for me. I also got a USB containing Windows 11. After accessing the UEFI BIOS Advanced Mode, I was able to change the boot from the SSD to the USB, to get to a fresh Windows install menu.
Upon further research online, found there is a “Repair my machine” option in bottom left at the “Install” screen, which some people apparently had success with. Tried it, had zero effect. I then went into the troubleshooting menus, tried basically every option, including “Restoring” the PC to a previous save point, which had been about 2 days before. Still nothing. After trying all the different ways to I came across to fix it, nothing worked, and my friend recommended I just do a wipe and reinstall Windows. So that’s what I did. I had feared that the GPU itself might be having issues, but given that I was navigating all the Windows install menus and everything afterwards without an issue, I eliminated a faulty GPU as a potential hardware issue. But I wanted to be sure, so I had a friend bring over his RTX 3060 to try that, but got the exact same boot issue, which led me to believe it’s NOT the GPU itself. With my motherboard, I also tried the other PCIe slot, with exact same result.
So after doing a full wipe of the SSD and reinstalling Windows on it, PC was running just like before. However, when I went to the NVIDIA experience again and tried the “Express” install again, exact same issue came up. Towards end of installation, screen went black and PC froze. I shut down, and when I booted, it would once again fail to boot the OS. So I wiped again. Once back up and running, instead of using the “Express Installation” through the NVIDIA experience, I now went to their website and tried to get the driver update directly, same issue. So after wiping AGAIN, thinking it might be something in the newest driver update code, chose to instead find and download the couple of months older version of the driver I was running the last two months. Well, same issue. Failed install, black screen, corrupted OS.
So at this point, after yet another wipe, as that seems to be the only way to have my PC function, I chose to just not update the driver. With wiping my PC, I went on to re-install a majority of the programs I had, along with multiple driver updates for different equipment. All without a single issue. So at this point I am lost on the next step. I have my PC running fine, however, I will need to update the GPU driver in the near future to have access to certain features in other programs, and want to do so without corrupting my C: drive and my OS, and having to wipe again. Any idea what it could be??? Thank you in advance for any help.
Last edited:
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