I reformatted my Windows 8.1 and installed this update; it literally broke my Windows. The install never said completed and upon force restart it doesn't boot into desktop. I thought it was a one-time bug so I did ANOTHER reformat and the same thing happened. This time for sure I knew it was 347.25's problem so I booted into safe mode (via cmd with bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy then spamming F8) and manually uninstalled the drivers and downloaded 347.09 and a bunch of older ones. All of them caused the same problems.


I have a GTX 780 running 4670k on MSI G45 z87 motherboard.


Update: It's been a few hours since I've reformatted to 8.1 and I haven't been able to get 5 different drivers to work. I'm starting to think Windows 8.1 with a fresh install doesn't mesh too well with nVidia drivers. I'm downloading Windows 8 as I speak and I'll try that out. Whenever I installed a driver, the installation never finishes and upon boot I go straight to a blank screen with no login. I know my hardware is fine because I have been using this same setup for the past year on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 (upgrade from 8, not a fresh install) and everything was working up until my reformat. Anyone had similar issues and a solution? Thanks.

I've  had no trouble at all with any Nvidia drivers and Win 8.1. Like Hillguy, not connected to internet while formatting and reinstallation of windows. I've had a much better experience with Win 8.1 than I did with Win 7. Very happy I made the choice to upgrade.

In addition to the above, you can use Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) in Safe Mode to remove the Graphics Driver, any/all optional driver components, staged driver packages from the Windows driver store, and clean up registry entries before installing the driver as Administrator..DDU will also set Windows not to download/auto-install drivers..It's an outstanding tool..If you would like more information on installation or to perform a Custom (Advanced) installation with only the optional driver components that you need/want, here's how.

Hey guys, I tried Windows 8 and the same thing happened. I wished I checked this thread before I kept going but I found a solution on my own even though I'm not sure what exactly fixed it. This is what I did:
 
1. Reformatted to 8.1
2. Boot into safe mode. (I've done this multiple times and didn't work before, so probably step 3 did the fix)
3. Unplugged my HDMI (I had HDMI and DVI plugged in for two monitors).
4. Installed 344.80, which is known to hotfix black screen logins for 970/980s.
 
I'll run DDU in future builds if I encounter problems. I hope this helps anyone in the future because I was checking the Geforce forums and quite a few people had black screen bootups after Windows logo. 

NordicJedi
Nice job solving it!  
 
Thanks also for posting what worked for you, as others read these threads with similar problems, and it may help them.

Indeed..