Fix: NVIDIA Installer Failed Error In Windows 10

You just updated your windows to Windows 10, and guess what? You stumped at an NVIDIA Installer Failed error. Don’t panic. This is one of the common issues windows users have been facing when they update their system to Windows 10.

You must be wondering, why does Windows have such enemy-like relationship with NVIDIA? Well, when you update your Windows, it downloads and installs GPU drivers automatically in the background.

However, if NVIDIA is installed at the same time when GPU drivers are being installed, there are fair chances that you will be facing this failed error.

How To Fix NVIDIA Failed Installer?

You aren’t the only one with this problem, and that turns out to be an advantage. Many people who have initially been experiencing this problem, tried and tested a few experiments to hack fixes for this infamous error.

We have listed all such methods, that have proven to eliminate this NVIDIA Installer Failed from prevailing:

Method 1: Delete A Few of The NVIDIA Files And Kill All The NVIDIA Processes

During updates or new installations, old NVIDIA files can cause the installer to fail without notice. You can target this problem by deleting some important files from NVIDIA’s main directly and kill the running processes.

This way, when you attempt to install, the files won’t bother during the installation. But what files to delete? Or how to kill NVIDIA’s processes effectively? Let’s take a look at that next.

Firstly, let’s try to delete all running NVIDIA processes. Here’s a list of steps to do that:

1. Open your Task Manager. You can either press the right button on your taskbar or press the following keys CTRL+ALT+delete. Once done, open the task manager from the options.
2. Head over to the Processes tab.
3. Select each NVIDIA process and press the “End Task” button.

Once done, let’s move to deleting the faulty files from NVIDIA’s main directory. Here’s how you can do just that:

• Open your Windows Explorer.
• Head over to the following directories and delete these files:
  • C:Program FilesNVIDIA Corporation
  • C:WindowsSystem32DriverStoreFileRepositorynvdsp.inf file
  • C:Program Files (x86)NVIDIA Corporation
  • C:WindowsSystem32DriverStoreFileRepositorynvoclock file
  • C:WindowsSystem32DriverStoreFileRepositorynv_lh file
• Reboot the system.
• Retry installing the drivers manually or let the system do an automatic update.

Method 2: Turn off All Antivirus Software’s And Firewalls Temporarily

During the installation of software, antivirus software and firewalls can cause an issue and might be the reason your NVIDIA installer failed. Although we do not recommend you to shut off your antivirus or firewall completely, you can temporarily disable them to install your software successfully.

There are several different antivirus solutions, and covering each one will be quite difficult. However, most running antivirus software has an icon in the taskbar. Right-click it, and see if you can disable the protection for an hour or two. If not, you might want to search for the specific method.

To disable your firewall, follow the following steps:

1. Open the Control Panel by searching for it.
2. Press the “System and Security” button.
3. Choose “Windows Firewall” from the newly presented options.
4. On the left side menu, press the “Turn Windows Defender Firewall On or
5. Press the bubble right next to “Turn off Windows Firewall.”
6. Save the changes by pressing “OK” and closing the window.

Method 3: Update Graphic Drivers

There are many underlying reasons for this error, but if the error was displayed because of incompatible drivers, only a few tweaks could solve it. An outdated and old driver can be troublesome with NVIDIA; therefore, updating graphics drivers to the latest can make your problem go away.

Here is how you can do this:

1. Right-click the Windows button, and select the “Device Manager” from the menu.
2. From the list of drivers, locate the “Device Adapters.”
3. Expand the “Device Adapters” tab and right-click the “NVIDIA Drivers.”
4. Select “Update Driver” from the drop-down menu.
5. When the window appears, select “Search automatically for updated driver software” and click next.

The windows will automatically search for the newer version of drivers available, and update it.

Method 4: Execute Custom Installation Of The Drivers

Since the error was occurred due to installation of GPU drivers at the back. However, this can be easily catered by installing drivers manually when you do it next time. You have to perform the installation of devices by yourself, follow the following process to know how you can do it:

1. Run the NVIDIA installer on your system.
2. Keep following the installer instructions until you reach the “Installation Options” screen.
3. You’ll be asked to select one option among these two:
   
   • Express Installation (Recommended)
   • Custom Installation (Advanced)

Select the Custom Installation (Advanced) option, and click Next to proceed.

1. Select all the driver components displayed on the screen.
2. Check the box of “Perform a clean installation” and click next to perform the installation.
3. Follow the on-screen installation instructions to install all the NVIDIA GPU drivers safely.

Method 5: Get Updated Drivers From NVIDIA Website

Outdated drivers are the most common reasons for the installer to fail. Since the issues are related to the hardware’s software, the diagnostic troubleshooting doesn’t often pick the reason. In most cases, you’re required to download the updated drivers for your graphics card.

However, if you find manual updating a hectic task, you can also turn on automatic updates. If, however, it was on already, you’ve no choice but to update your driver manually.

Here’s a list of steps you can follow to update your NVIDIA drivers:

1. Visit NVIDIA’s official website: https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
2. Enter the information about your graphics card as well as the operating system you’re running.
3. Hit the “Search” button and let the query return some results.
4. Press the “Download” button, and your update will begin to download.
5. Once downloaded, you can run the installer and easily update your drivers to the latest version.

Method 6: Carry Out A Clean Boot

A clean boot is one of the saviors, that troubleshoots many complex windows problems. And, NVIDIA is one of such issues, might get fixed by it.

Here is how you can perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10:

1. From the Start search MSConfig and hit enter to open System Configuration Utility.
2. Once it opens, go in the “General” tab and select “Selective Startup.”
3. Uncheck the “Load Startup Items” checkbox and check the “Load System Services” and “Use Original boot configuration” check-boxes.
4. Now, go to “Services” tab and check the “Hide all Microsoft services” checkbox located at the bottom of the window.
5. Click Apply or OK button.
6. Restart your computer to run the clean boot.

This clean boot should make your NVIDIA error vanish.

Method 7: Run SFC And CHKDSK

Missing or damaged files can often cause installers to fail. To solve this issue, you can either use the System File Checker (SFC) or the CHKDSK method, which can resolve such issues instantly.

To run an SFC check on your system, follow these steps:

1. Search for the command prompt. Right-click on it, and run it as administrator.
2. At the command prompt, type the following command: “sfc /scannow”.
3. Press Enter and let Windows handle the rest.

In most cases, the issue is resolved with this only. If not, you can run the second method we talked about. Here’s a list of steps to run CHKDSK:

1. Search for the command prompt and right-click the icon.
2. Select “Run as administrator” from the drop-down menu.
3. When the command prompt window opens, type chkdsk C: /f /r /x
4. Press Enter to start the check.

Method 8: Rollback NVIDIA Drivers

If you’ve tried everything from our list, maybe it’s the new updates which are faulty. Often, the new updates aren’t so exhaustively tested and miss out key details. Because of this, most systems can’t run the NVIDIA’s installer.

You can efficiently target this problem by rolling back your driver’s versions to the past installation or update. This way, it’ll be back to a stable version, and the problem will go away. Here’s how to rollback NVIDIA drivers:

1. From the search button, search for the Device Manager or open it from your system’s Control Panel.
2. Expand the “Display Drivers” tab, and you’ll be seeing a list of all graphics card installed on your system.
3. Right-click on your graphics card and press the “Properties” button.
4. From the newly opened tab, head over to “Drivers.”
5. One of the many options provided in this tab includes “Roll Back Driver.” Press the button.
6. In the confirmation window, press “Yes” and let it roll back your drivers.