With graphics driver installed will not boot into windows. Black screen with pointer as the only visible object. Must open in safe mode or use microsoft standard VGA driver to access computer.
Have tried 197.41, 197.75, 257.15 drivers without any improvement. A reinstall of Windows 7 64 bit made no difference. Several Windows updates (some reffering to nvidia graphics properties) have shown no benefit.
 
Could there be a conflict with other component drivers? I have a SIIG DP SATA 6Gb/s 2S1P storage controller card installed with two OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD's in a RAID 0 configuration. These components display correct function in their properties.
 
G. Skill F3-16000CL9D-4GBTD is approved as compatible with EVGA P55 FTW motherboard. Four sticks are installed.
 
XFX 850 watt PSU should provide adequate power to a single graphics card.
 
Several alterations to BIOS settings including "reset to optimum default" have been tried without success. CMOS reset without success.
 
I am not an expert on this stuff but it still comes back as a problem with the graphics driver or a possible conflict with another component driver? Very frustrating!
 
Any thoughts on this matter would be appreciated.
 

Your 850 watt PSU should have multiple PCI-E power connectors so disconnect the ones you are using now and try two others. If that fails try another PCI-E slot for your video card.

flip3d333 

It would seem that the installation of the second SSD, the RAID controller card and a reinstall of Windows 7/CMOS reset would eliminate any remnants of previous graphics drivers? 
  
One thing I will add. Upon running a performance report I find an error marked as "Device driver marked as corrupt". This is reffering to the GeForce GTX 480 and lists "tv_ConfigMgrErr39". It also states that "This device will not be available until the issue is resolved". It gives the Plug and Play ID as "VidioController1" and "PCI\VEN_10DE-DEV_06C0-SUBSYS_14803842-REV_A3\4-2BAFFB92-0-0018" (whew!). 
 

When you say "and a reinstall of Windows 7", you wiped your hard drive clean and re-installed your OS back in, correct?
 
There's a free program on www.guru3d.com or www.techpowerup.com called Drive Sweeper.  You can download it, reboot your computer into safe mode after you un-install your old Nvidia software, and use this program to clean up any left over files and drivers.  Make sure to only touch the Display Driver for Nvidia and ATI for video cards.  You don't want to install a new card with some of the previous card's driver.  Since you switched from a PNY FX5200 PCI to a 8800 GTX to a 480, I imagine they all use different drivers.
 
CMOS reset won't remove your previous drivers stored on your hard drive.  In your BIOS, make sure you set your Vid slot settings to PCI X if your using the 480, and not the PCI.  I don't know if it will make any major complications for your video card because I've had that setting on PCI when i was running an old 4800 ATI card.  The card gave me issues when I was playing WoW, and only after i switched it to PCI X that it worked properly without any additional problems.
 
As for the "Device Driver Marked as Corrupted", I think you need to uninstall your 480 drivers.  Make sure all the other video drivers hiding in your system are gone before you go back to the driver installation again.  You should still be able to access all your goodies in Windows without the 480 video driver installed.  Once you uninstall your 480 driver, reboot, get back into windows properly.  That should be a good indicator if your video card is working properly.  If you can't get back into windows, you're still experiencing issues with the card without the driver installed, places your 480 into another slot and see if it repeats the same process.  If it does, I hope you registered the card when you got it.

Correction: when I said PCI x, I meant PCI e... blah

flip3d333

Thanks to all! I'll do the driver clean up and get back later with the results.

Here is guide for driver install. It's a good read.
nvidia.com/forum

Stop using windows update for anything video card related immediately and forever from this point forward.

Don't use the "roll back" driver process either.  Go into control panel , programs,  and uninstall program instead.

Boot back up in safe mode, Un install drivers using CP.  Run driver sweeper, boot back into windows normally.

Install driver downloaded from nvidia  http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-197.75-whql.html

Maybe time for a windows reinstall?

flip3d333

Computer boots into Windows.

I check Windows update and there is something related to the nvidia GTX 480 listed. I install the update and computer boots into black screen again.

I'm gonna assume that you had no problems booting into Windows after you use Driver Sweeper.  So there's really nothing wrong with the card itself.
 
If your GTX 480 is from EVGA, you should just download the newest, un-beta version of the driver file for your card from the EVGA website.  Ignore the CD that came with the card and any other Windows 7 recommend update for the new card detected.  In theory, things should start working properly.
 
I don't know if your Raid Controller Card would have an affect on it or not.
 
I hope you get it working, man.

Have you tried turning your monitor off and back on while its black?

Mine does that from time to time on boot up and loading games.

Update:

It appears the NVIDIA high definition audio drivers are somehow interconnected with the graphics driver. They are listed in the "Device Manager" under "Sound, vidio and game controllers" and are not removed with Driver Sweeper.

This is just an observation that may or may not have any relevance to the display problem that is the basis for this thread. The NVIDIA HD audio driver had to be manually removed after running Driver Sweeper. After reboot the display resolution had changed to 600x800 where as without removal of the audio drivers it remained at 1280x800.

The neat thing about Driver Sweeper is that it gives registry components that are being removed. This could be usefull since a registry error was listed as the cause of this problem.

"Messing with Registry" is possibly like "Messing with Sasquatch"... Do I really want to go there?

I am also experiencing issues such as the OP described.

Can't boot into windows as soon as I load Nvidia display drivers.

-No overclocks (ever on this system)
-850W PSU (CP-850)
-Windows 7 x64 Home
-Fresh install of Windows didn't help
-Reformat and fresh install didn't help
-With or without Windows updates didn't matter, computer would boot just fine until immediately after installing display drivers

Currently I have moved my GTX 480 from PCI-EX1 to PCI-EX2 on my Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, and will see if that changes anything.

If you check your minidump files with a debugging program, I'd be willing to bet your hard lockups were a result of VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE.  Nvidia will tell you it's a Windows problem...Microsoft will tell you it's an Nvidia problem.

Typical finger pointing while their customers sit with useless or unreliable hardware.