NVIDIA Installer failed, please help

[hanyoukimura]

Hello everyone. I was recommended to come here for some advice, hopefully I can find a solution for the problem.

I tried to install 286.62 drivers for my GTX 260 yesterday, but every time I run the installer it ends partway through the installation with the message: NVIDIA Installer failed
NVIDIA Update -Not Installed
PhysX System Software -Not Installed
3D Vision Controller Driver -Not Installed
HD Audio Driver -Not Installed
NVIDIA Control Panel -Failed
Graphics Driver -Failed
3D Vision Driver -Not Installed

I've looked over several forums and haven't had any luck with the fixes I've found.
Things I've tried :

Tried files downloaded from both nVidia and EVGA (the card's manufacturer)
Tried installing older versions of the driver...same result
Uninstalling old drivers, booting into safemode as Admin, using Driver Sweeper and attempting to install as Admin... Same Result
I started out with driver's from 10/10, but now the best version is from 2009 and it's what Windows 7 installs (and claims is the latest version). However I get error messages when I try to play any games.

I'm nearly to the point where I can't think of any other option than to format the HD and start over, but I really don't want it to come to that. I can't roll back teh driver now and for some reason System Restore doesn't even work.

I found a thread with a similar problem to mine, but no resolution.

Install Failure of Nvidia Drivers - Windows 7 Forums

For the heck of it I ran sfc /verifyonly and got "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations"

I'm stuck.

[Shadowmeph]

What I always do is totally remove any previous nviddrivers and I go into all of the nvideo driver folder and delete those also , then I run ccleaner which both the garbage and the reg cleaner, reboot and install the new drivers ,you just have to stop the found new hardware installer also make sure that you right click on the driver and go to run as administrator. I will check back in a while to see if this helped you.

[Silvgearx]

285.26 seems to be a unstable driver even for the new cards.

So I take it you can't install any driver that comes with the nvidia installer?

Try the ancient 196.21?

[rjbarker]

When you go to install Drivers have you got the little box "Clean install" checked? If you do, try unchecking it and see if that helps....I've had the excat same message "unable to install nvidia Driver" and by unchecking the box, solved the problem.

[hanyoukimura]

Thanks for the replies.

I downloaded and ran ccleaner, I disabled windows from automatically installing the drivers, I've tried express isntall, custom install with and without clean install checked, I've tried 285.62, 280.26, 275.33, and 196.21 to no avail.

[Shadowmeph]

did you delete the nvidia folders? also go into device manager and right click on display adapter and remove then reboot try again

[hanyoukimura]

Did both, no luck.

[SKYMTL]

Install Driver Sweeper (the real one, not that shit on Guru3D): Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

Reboot into Safe Mode

Start Driver Sweeper and Select NVIDIA Display and clean.

Reboot and ensure that the Windows Auto Device Installer isn't running.

Install drivers

[Shadowmeph]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

Install Driver Sweeper (the real one, not that shit on Guru3D): Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

Reboot into Safe Mode

Start Driver Sweeper and Select NVIDIA Display and clean.

Reboot and ensure that the Windows Auto Device Installer isn't running.

Install drivers

I was triying to remember the name of that.
Tis should work

[hanyoukimura]

I'm not sure what happened but after countless failed attempts I renabled WIndows to download and install driver's automatically, basically giving up. It did so but the driver's were a newer version than before (from 2010 vs 2009). So on a whim I tried to install 258.96 drivers and it worked! I kind of want to try the lastest version to see if it works, but I doubt there'd be any benefits for the GTX 260 and I don't want to mess things up again. :P