Windows 8 Not Allowing Safe Mode and Seems to Freeze During System Recovery

[maxcastillo8]

Hello! So I recently installed the latest Nvidia drivers on my Alienware desktop (there's my first mistake, I know) and as seems to be the case with many other people, I get a blank screen on startup after the bios option screen; the monitor says signal is lost and shuts off. I have been told to start in safe mode and uninstall the drivers. This is what I want to do, but can't seem to get there. I've gotten the shift-f8 option on startup to work for me a few times, but it brings me to a screen saying "preparing automatic repair" and eventually asks if I want to do a system restore. When I say yes, it brings me to a black screen that says "Alienware" and that's it; it just seems to sit there. So the problem is that it never gives me the option to start in safe mode - it always takes me directly to system restore, which seems to always freeze. I'm beginning to get pretty frustrated, so I hope you guys can help me out!

I would tell you guys the specs of my computer and specific driver update I installed, but I'm not too tech savvy and can't get to them since I can't get past this black screen...

 

[The_Prophecy]

You can get into Safe Mode by enabling the legacy boot menu. If the system doesn't boot normally and you have a Windows 8 or 8.1 install disk handy, you can enable it by booting from the install disk, then following the screenshots below to enable the menu. The command in the last screen is below so you can copy it exactly:

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

Now when you reboot, you can press F8 and access the menu to boot into Safe Mode.

If you don't have a disk handy, use the screenshots above for reference. If the automatic repair menu allows you the option of starting a command prompt window, use that and enter the command as seen above to enable the menu.