All of a sudden I cannot install any Nvidia driver without the process stalling or aborting. I have tried DDU (driver cleaner), safe mode and howling at the moon but nothing works. 

Hello Paul,

Yes I've had that recently, but it usually just involves rebooting and trying again.

I don't really recommend using any driver cleaners for these situations, going to safe mode is a better bet, and just checking device manager to see if there are any duplicate entries under Graphics card and removing them and restarting again.

 

Thanks, those were the first things I tried but now almost ready to reinstall win 10.

I wish I could understand why people seem to have issues with installing new drivers.  I've been doing it the quick and dirty way for many years, through the nvidia installer, choosing a clean install every single time and I have yet to ever have a driver install failure.  I've never used driver cleaners (got a virus the last time I attempted to try it) and I too don't sanction their use, but for a normal a-typical install, it can be just as simple as going through the checkboxes and prompts from the installer itself.

Paul, I would just uninstall all of the driver, ensure nothing is left behind, reboot, let windows 10 find a driver to install for now, then go back and update it with nvidia's installer.  It should all work fine.

For the record, this was not meant to be a tongue in cheek response, but rather a rhetorical one. :)

Ok,,never had a problem in over 10 years of installing drivers so don't put me in your (people always have issues) section. I have tired to let win 10 install a driver and then tried again to update N driver but still no luck. 

4 minutes ago, warbirds said:

Ok,,never had a problem in over 10 years of installing drivers so don't put me in your (people always have issues) section. I have tired to let win 10 install a driver and then tried again to update N driver but still no luck. 

It was a rhetorical question, no need to get upset. :)

Did you see what driver Windows did install?  Typically, Windows will look for a WHQL driver for the make and model of your gpu, then it is as simple as going to nvidia's drivers page ( http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx ) and going from there.

What specific error did you get when you tried to install the newer driver?

Sorry, a bit frustrated at having no driver.. With one earlier driver it stalls during install and lets me have a partial driver that works but no console. With newer driver I get the black warning window stating Install Failed. 

1 minute ago, warbirds said:

Sorry, a bit frustrated at having no driver.. With one earlier driver it stalls during install and lets me have a partial driver that works but no console. With newer driver I get the black warning window stating Install Failed. 

It's alirght, we've all been there. :)

So after Windows installs a driver, what was the version?  Had you tried to open the nvidia control panel in your systray yet?  Did the dialog that appeared with the "install failed" message, have any error code or anything to reference to for further details?

Here are some screenshots showing problems. 

First here is the driver  properties window showing incomplete install.

And here is the uninstall software window showing I have no driver even though I have part of a driver that works but no N console. 

3 minutes ago, Jimm said:

It's alirght, we've all been there. :)

So after Windows installs a driver, what was the version?  Had you tried to open the nvidia control panel in your systray yet?  Did the dialog that appeared with the "install failed" message, have any error code or anything to reference to for further details?

That is the interesting part - the driver that stalled gave me part of a driver with no Nvidia control panel but Nvidia Inspector states I do have that driver and can set settings from there.

1 minute ago, warbirds said:

That is the interesting part - the driver that stalled gave me part of a driver with no Nvidia console but Nvidia Inspector states I do have that driver and can set settings from there.

You aren't referring to the nvidia photoshop plugin are you?  I just looked that up and that plugin is rather old, though I suspect it has nothing to do with your issue.

This may or may not help you out, but it seemed to address the issue you are having:

https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/how-to-fix-windows-10-nvidia-installer-failed-issue/

No,,that screen is just showing  you that it claims I have no drivers installed. All other items displayed are irrelevant.

Well I've had the "driver failed" issue before on Windows 7, but in my case, I just ran the installer again and it fixed the issue. I didn't go through add/remove programs or anything like that, just a reboot and reinstall, making sure I "Ran as administrator" which seems to do the trick most of the times. 

 

55 minutes ago, Jude Bradley said:

making sure I "Ran as administrator" which seems to do the trick most of the times. 

Could it have really been that simple a solution?  I completely forgot to ask Paul what the status was of the UAC.  I haven't "complied" with UAC in a few years, as I typically turned it completely off (I know, rebel here), so I really never concerned myself with the "run as administrator" and I often forget to ask people, when they have install issues, but you may have hit a sticking point Jude.  If the UAC is set middle to high, that could be hampering Paul's install.

Even when I have it disabled (in Windows 7) I still run as admin) habit I suppose, since I work in I.T.