On an RTX 3090 - Black screen after booting into safe mode ——- fixed

[Akula]

Admins, apologies if this is in the wrong section so please feel free to move it if you need to.

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if you are running an RTX 3090 and on the latest Nvidia driver (580.97 as of August 16, 2025) and CANNOT get into safe mode, this might help you. 
 

problem: cannot get into safe mode

what is happening:

- In windows 11. 

- press start > select power icon to restart > hover mouse over restart > hold down left-shift and click restart to bring up troubleshooting window

- trouble shooting window comes up, no problem so far. 
 

- Select Troubleshoot > select Advanced Options > select Startup Settings > select Restart. No problem so far……. BUT!

The system boots to a black screen and there is no blue screen that allows you to select option 4 or 5 to boot into safe mode. 
 

Here is how I fixed it. 
 

- pressed Enter > Rebooted back into windows 11

- Used “Direct Driver Uninstaller” to uninstall the latest Nvidia driver (580.97)

- tried booting into safe mode again and this time it worked. I got into safe mode and used DDU again as a failsafe to remove every single trace of that POS driver. 

- Now back to windows 11

- installed driver version 576.52

- Tested again and I was able to boot into safe mode. 
 

fixed! 

Nvidia seems to have crapped the bed with their latest drivers. I don’t care what anyone says, to me it looks like they are so into trying to revive the 50 series cards that their latest drivers are absolute shiiite for 3090 users. 
 

anyways, hope this helps someone. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Akula