Great advice except when it isn’t. I install the MB drivers, know how to set BIOS parameters, have the latest BIOS. Every Nvidia driver after 457.30 was bringing my system to its knees. My FS2020 system is a gaming system but mostly simulation system. I keep applications off my C drive as much as possible and Steam lets me do that easily. Wiping and rebuilding Windows is a PITA but not that bad.
I rebuilt Windows using my old install media, fully updated, and still couldn’t update the Nvidia driver past 457.30. I downloaded a fresh windows.iso from Microsoft and installed from that. This time I could install 466.11 and that day 466.27 hit. Upgraded to that just fine.
The repair option using the new .iso didn’t fix it for me. It did work for another guy. I had to do a full reinstall but that appears to have been key - using the new windows.iso. There probably is a more surgical way to fix whatever is the root cause but I don’t know it. What I do know is nothing was fixing my incompatibility with Nvidia drivers after 457.30 until I did the wipe/reinstall with a new windows.iso.
There appears to be different versions of Windows depending on the installation media heritage. I do know there have been around 10 revisions to windows.iso since I got my install media and license.
I’d bet a lot of people’s problems are something else, but I had exhausted everything else I could find to be able to upgrade the Nvidia driver. Wiping and rebuilding Windows only worked for me when I used the latest windows.iso to do it. But that was the ONLY thing I tried that did fix my system. And that’s the thing - it worked and fixed my system.
Some do apparently need to wipe and reinstall. I suspect there’s more than just me that need to do it. The thing for anyone doing it - don’t use your original install media. It can just put you right back where you were. Get the latest windows.iso from Microsoft and use that.
But this won’t be everyone’s problem. It is a PITA. But don’t blanket discount it. It was the only thing that worked for my system and only with the latest windows.iso.