How to Fix “NVIDIA Installer Cannot Continue” Error on Windows

The Nvidia graphics cards and their drivers are a few of the best components that are available for gamers, graphics designers, and video creators. Be it a basic GTX series card or a high-end Quadro card, all the graphics cards they manufacture are known for their ability to run content at a high frame rate.

If you have, there can be situations when you cannot download an update through the Nvidia Geforce Experience interface tool. If your driver installation failed, this article will help you take the necessary actions.

Why can’t you download an Nvidia graphics driver?

Old drivers are never as powerful as the latest game-ready drivers. New game-ready drivers can also contain removed bugs and glitches. This is why you have to keep your drivers up to date. If you are not able to download this, there may be some problems with the Nvidia Geforce experience application. As the main symptom, you’ll see this error message:

“Nvidia Installer cannot continue” or “NVIDIA Installer Failed”

You can uninstall it and then reinstall it from the Nvidia support website. This is not a serious issue but this is a component that is best when updated regularly on your Windows Operating System (OS).

What do I do when I can’t download Nvidia drivers?

If you are someone who understands the value of updating the graphics driver, you will know the importance of why you have to fix the issue of not being able to download an update, immediately. For those who don’t, it is recommended that you update the drivers to maintain the GPU output and extend the life of your Nvidia card.

If you aren’t able to download the needed Nvidia drivers through the Nvidia Geforce Experience, these are the procedures that can help you proceed with downloading the drivers and installing them through the following methods, alternatively or by correcting the problems that affect your system.

These are what you can do to download your Nvidia graphics driver, without any error:

1. Install the drivers manually
2. Stop all Nvidia processes and remove all the Nvidia files
3. Disable the system’s antivirus, temporarily
4. Rename the Nvidia directory
5. Update your Windows 10 Operating System

Methods to fix the Nvidia Installer cannot continue issue 

The following steps to get the latest drivers can be proceeded with, through normal mode or safe mode. If you see the same message as you see when you try to update from the older version of the video card to the correct version, these are the steps to get rid of this message and fix this issue

Install the drivers manually

If you are not able to use your Geforce Experience to download updates, you can download the drivers that power your video cards using the Device Manager. This window is used to accommodate all the drivers that are essential for your computer’s functioning.

Not just the Geforce drivers, you can install drivers that are already available on your computer or if you wish to download new drivers for a new component.

This is your procedure to custom install a new game-ready driver on your computer, manually:

1. Open Device Manager through the Quick link menu or the search bar.
   1. Right-click on the Start button for the Quick Link menu to pop up on the lower-left corner of your screen. Choose the Device Manager option here.
   2. As an alternative, you can use the search bar on the taskbar at the bottom to look for this and open the first search result to appear.
2. Navigate to the Display Adapters section and click on it to see all the graphics drivers installed on your system.
3. Right-click on the dedicated driver that has to be updated and select Update driver.

4. This will launch the driver update wizard. Here, you have to choose Search automatically for updates and your drivers will be automatically updated. 

There is another way you can manually install a new driver.  You can go to the Nvidia software webpage, search for the correct driver by entering the name of the GPU in the search fields, specifically, and click on the Download button to download it. The file will be downloaded as a .exe file setup, which can be installed easily.

Stop all Nvidia processes and remove all the Nvidia files

Some Nvidia processes may be corrupt or malfunctioning, both of which are not optimal. If you stop these processes and delete the files that these processes create, you might be able to download drivers again without any problems. 

Here’s how you can find and stop the Nvidia processes on your computer:

1. Open the Task Manager window using the keyboard hotkey shortcut (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) or by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting the Task Manager option from the context menu.
2. Make sure you are in the Processes tab and search for every process that has the word Nvidia in it.
3. Click on all the processes one at a time and then select End Task to kill the process. 

To delete Nvidia files, follow these steps:

1. Open the File Explorer (Windows + E).
2. Locate and delete the following files:

• C:/Windows/System32/DriverStore/FileRepository/nvdsp.inf document
• C:/Windows/System32/DriverStore/FileRepository/nv_lh document
• C:/Windows/System32/DriverStore/FileRepository/nvoclock document
• C:/Program Files/NVIDIA Corporation
• C:/Program Files (x86)/NVIDIA Corporation

3. Once these files are deleted, save the changes by restarting your computer. 

Disable the system’s antivirus, temporarily

If you have antivirus software that suspects and interferes with the functioning of the Geforce Experience, you will have to temporarily disable it to verify if the issue is really caused by your antivirus.

These are the steps to stop your antivirus for a while:

1. You will find the antivirus icon near or inside the task tray.
2. Right-click on it and you should be able to see options that allow you to disable your antivirus for varying durations of time.

3. Then, search for the Windows Security option in the search bar and open the best result.
4. You will be able to find settings that will temporarily deactivate the Windows protection. Disable this and then try updating your graphics card drivers. 

You should also consider the possibility that the Geforce Experience application might be outdated. Download the latest version of this application from the Nvidia website to evade server-based issues.

Rename the Nvidia directory

Renaming the Nvidia folder in the Program files location may help you as this fix has been reported to have worked for some users. This is worth a shot.

These are the steps to rename the folder on your system:

1. Go into the hard drive partition that contains the Nvidia folder. By default, it will be located in the C:/ Program Files /NVIDIA Corporation.

2. Right-click on the NVIDIA Corporation folder and select Rename or just select the folder and press F2 on your keyboard. 
3. Now, change the name to anything you wish.

Update your Windows 10 Operating System

A Windows Update can be very powerful. They have the capacity to fix almost every bug and glitch on your computer. However, this is a chance that you should take to fix this issue and continue downloading Nvidia Geforce drivers.

This is the procedure to update your Windows OS:

1. Open the Windows Settings from the left side of the Start menu or by pressing the Windows + I keys.
2. Go to the Update & Security settings and then open the Update tab.
3. Under Windows Update, click on the Check for Updates option.
4. If you have any pending updates, check if you have a proper connection to the network and download them. 

You will have to restart your computer, when the download is complete, in order to install and apply the new updates to your OS.

These are the methods that can help you update your graphics card drivers. You can also use third-party applications like the Display Driver Uninstaller, which will perform automatic driver updates for you and look into them, after a scan of your Nvidia driver. If these steps do not rectify this situation of yours, you will have to seek the help of a professional.