Problems Installing nVidia Display Driver

[jseidel]

About 6 weeks ago I tried to upgrade my nVidia display driver to the most current. At the time it was version 310.70. I always go to Control Panel, Programs and Features and uninstall the current nVidia driver and reboot before I install the new. I rebooted and unlike the usual experience where the screen drops to the lowest resolution where the icons and text are huge it booted up and the resolution was the native 1920 X 1080. I went ahead and installed version 310.70 and then rebooted when prompted. The computer went to the Windows 8 splash screen, briefly heard the Windows start music and then the screen started to flicker black to grey, black to grey and never went to the lock screen at all. Just kept flickering black to grey in a perpetual attempt to load the display driver. On that occasion I could not figure out how to boot into the Safe Mode in Windows 8 so removed the graphics card from the slot on the motherboard, plugged the monitor into the on board graphics port on the motherboard (Thank goodness I had on board graphics!) and then rebooted so I could see the screen again. I removed the new display driver in Programs and Features once again and rebooted. This time the display remained in the VGA mode and remained at the lowest resolution. I installed version 310.70 again at this point and then rebooted and everything came up just fine.
Well, the nVidia update manager in all its wisdom prompted me to update my driver to version 314.07 when it became available on the nVidia website a couple of days ago. So I did the same thing again yesterday (Einstein said the definition of an idiot is one who does the same action over and over but keeps expecting different results. . . . that would be me.) and once again at reboot the screen went to the native 1920 X 1080. I looked in Programs and Features this time to discover that version 306.97 had installed itself via Windows. So, I decided to do a clean install via the nVidia installer option to do so. Never asked me to reboot after installation which I thought odd but everything worked. Turn on my PC today and get the Windows 8 splash screen and then flickers black to grey, black to grey and never boots to Windows. This time I did some research and found how to boot into the Safe Mode in Windows 8. (It ain't easy. You have to be quick.) Anyway, on the second try I got to the Safe Mode and removed the new display driver in Control Panel, rebooted and once again ended up at full native resolution with version 306.97 auto installed.
Anyway on the fourth try I rebooted, the screen remained in the VGA mode and I installed the newest version 314.07, rebooted and ended up in Windows with everything working and the new driver installed. Everything seems OK now. . . I can reboot and get to Windows successfully.
Any ideas what may be going on here? Any thoughts on how to prevent this? Yea, I know, don't update my display driver, right
Thanks for any ideas or sharing of similar experiences. Machine specs below.
J.

[SpywareDr]

Any ideas what may be going on here?

Buggy driver, incompatibility, or both.

Any thoughts on how to prevent this?

Use a version that doesn't cause problems on your particular setup.

[Train]

And do not be surprised if you have to go back several versions. When you find it, burn it to a cd against future need.
There comes a time when the latest video driver is the greatest at messing up a computer. Learned the hard way too.

[jseidel]

What is most remarkable is the version that reinstalls itself is the one that was on the machine before the conversion to Windows 8, that is from Windows 7. Never had that version after the upgrade by my own install. I'm convinced the best thing to do if one upgrades to Windows 8 is to do a clean install.
J.

[Train]

if one upgrades to Windows 8 is to do a clean install.

There a bunch of us who agrees with that statement. No argument at all!!!

[SpywareDr]

... burn it to a cd against future need.

Tip: CD/DVD drives are disappearing, like the floppy.

[Train]

Tip: CD/DVD drives are disappearing, like the floppy.

Figures

[jdc2000]

Some manufacturers are eliminating them, more to save a few $$ and make more profit than for any other reason. They are not going away any time soon though.

[SpywareDr]

I tend to agree. Probably fade away slowly, much like the floppy drive, parallel and serial ports, cassettes, 8-track tapes, etc., etc.