[solved] Weird black screen problem with GTX 460

[lehtv]

I have an old Gigabyte GTX 460. My setup currently has no case to secure parts in. So I managed to power on the PC with the GTX 460 improperly seated in its slot. The end with the PCI bracket was out of the slot, while the other end was still in. Naturally, there was nothing on screen apart from "no signal".

I shut it down, seated the card properly, powered on again. It seemed to be working fine during POST; that is, until it booted to Windows (7 64-bit). This made me think it's probably a software issue and I should reinstall the drivers, which I did with the help of integrated graphics. I used Guru3D driver uninstaller in safe mode and rebooted. Put the card back in, this time it seemed to be working. Confirmed, it's a driver issue! However, after installing the newest drivers, black screen again.

Maybe here's a clue: after not getting video in Windows, the next time it suggests startup repair (which I tried, to no avail). Apparently, with NVIDIA drivers installed, Windows fails to start up.

Help! :'( I will post cookies for good answers. :thumbsup:

 

[Braxos]

Start windows 7 on safe mode uninstal nvidia drivers, reboot and check if windows start normaly, then install nvidia drivers. I think it should work. Gl

 

[lehtv]

That's exactly what I did, as I explained in the OP.

I used Guru3D driver uninstaller in safe mode and rebooted. Put the card back in, this time it seemed to be working. Confirmed, it's a driver issue! However, after installing the newest drivers, black screen again.

 

[lehtv]

Reinstalling Windows fixed it. I guess we'll never know exactly what caused it 🙁

 

[lehtv]

Just in case anyone ever has a similar problem... I think I narrowed it down to an NVIDIA vs Intel HD driver conflict.

The issue resurfaced when I installed Intel HD drivers on my fresh OS install. I didn't actually need the integrated GPU, but I thought I'd fix another issue by installing these drivers: I was unable to put the computer to sleep mode (the option was greyed out) and had read that having a Standard VGA Graphics Adapter active in Device Manager was the cause of that. Logically, since I had NVIDIA drivers already, I thought if I installed Intel HD drivers, the VGA Graphics Adapter driver would have no need to run.

However, that then caused Windows startup to fail again with the NVIDIA card & its drivers installed.

I managed to fix it by first removing the card from the system, then removing both NVIDIA and Intel drivers. Then I reinstalled the card, booted to Windows, disabled (not uninstalled) the standard VGA graphics driver of the Intel GPU (which you can identify by the message "this device could not start"), then installed NVIDIA drivers and rebooted.