Alright then what should almost definitely fix it is if you download the latest driver and extract the install folder to C: by running it.
Then boot to safe mode and use the device manager to install the driver.
After it finishes, boot to regular mode.
Should I try updating the drivers from the nVidia website despite the fact that Windows insists they are update to date?
Yes, definitely. Never let Windows Update install a video driver. Always NVIDIA's site.
I ran the installer and got the error "Stereo Server could not be installed." I hit OK and the installation proceeded, and finished.
Then I went to the Device Manager and hit Update Driver, and picked the folder that I installed to. But Windows comes up and says that my driver is up to date (even though it's definitely using an older version), so it refuses to install the new driver.
Geez, today is not my day for technology, haha...
lol
Right click on the video card in device manager. Update driver software. Browse my computer. Let me pick. Have disk. Browse.
Now find the .inf that was extracted and double click it. Click ok. Click next and it will install.
Hah. Saw the "Have Disk" but thought to myself, "I don't have a disk," so I just totally ignored it...
So, I picked NV_DISP.inf to install, and it said it was successful! Good news there, I guess... but the bad news is that there is still the black screen...
Thanks for the idea though... I really do appreciate your help.
PS: For anyone reading this, I'm off to bed now; I will check back as soon as I'm home from university tomorrow. Any insight in the meantime would be much appreciated.
Last edited by Stewie; 23 Nov 2009 at 01:22.
Gonna bump this for the day crowd... Still fighting with it. :/
You could check the refresh rate and set it to 60 Hz if it's not. Other than that, it sounds like faulty hardware issue then.
Do you have any idea which hardware would be causing the problem? It doesn't seem like a Graphics Card issue because the Ctrl-Alt-Del menu comes up alright. The HD is still accessible though... and RAM seems okay... so I guess it must be GPU-related?
(And the refresh rate is set to Hardware Default.)
If you have onboard video, enable it in the bios if need be and test like that. Plug the monitor into it and boot to Windows.
Or another test is to uninstall the driver for your current card while deleting the driver using the device manager. Reboot and see how it goes, even with standard vga driver.
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