Another Nvidia/Win10 Nightmare (No Signal)

Hi,

Hope someone can assist.

Last Saturday my bedroom HTPC came down with a bad case of Cerber {ransomware: thanks Russian knobs}. As it was only a basic media streamer I decided to just wipe & format ALL internal drives/partitions, as well as any USB sticks that had been in the machine, thinking it a simple matter to reinstall my latest Acronis True Image image. The HTPC is connected to older Samsung HD ready LCD TV via HDMI, which operates Logitech 5.1 analogue speaker set, from Asus Xonar DG soundcard.

I originally upgraded from Win7 Home Premium via a clean install using ISO. I never had ANY issues with the unit.

Upon first reinstall attempt, I got the 'no signal'. Thinking it was an install glitch I just reinstalled again: same thing! I have spent the last two-odd days trying to sort this BS out [which has included significant levels of research & forum reading]. I don't get ANY cursor, or indication of responsiveness on-screen. This is what happened, & what I've attempted to date:

-downloaded & tried 4 different GeForce driver packages (341.95, 341.92, 341.81, & 333.02 {that's what Driver Talent said was the correct version})
-in between attempts, I used latest DDU to do clean uninstall back to the Basic Display Drivers.

-upgraded AS Rock G41C-GS mobo to latest BIOS -1.40 -please don't anyone come on & say this mobo isn't Win10 compliant; it was operating flawlessly for over 5 months; with the older 1.20 BIOS. This is a legacy BIOS variant: no mod-cons with this unit.

-EVERYTIME I remove back to Basic VGA drivers the system works perfectly. This is with VGA ports on both the onboard & card ports. As soon as I attempt to install Nvidia drivers, I get black screen, on both ports.

-tried disabling fast restart in <Power Options>

-& all the other seemingly obvious fixes mentioned on around 10 different sites; including this one.

Think that's about all I can think that I've tried, but may be wrong. My brains like mush at present. Don't know what to do, from here. I can't get Mediaportal up-&-running until I can sort this mess out. All & any help, ideas, observations would be greatly appreciated.

Oh yeah, can't use safe mode with networking as I am LAN connected via WiFi 802.AC card.
Oh yeah, again, Damn... can't think what I was going to say
-that's right: I'm not IT literate when it comes to coding-speak, so please, talk basic

OK. Back to basics, as a responder to one of the threads on this site recommended.

Removed all cards & reinstalled OS again: Same issue.

I had an old Asus 9500GT card in storage which I collected & installed. Appears the 8500GT card must have had a failure of some type, as the latest Nvidia drivers installed fine. Only issue I now have is the fan is too thick to allow my WiFi card to fit in the only PCI-E slot, on my micro mobo.

I will attempt to remove fan, fit better thermal paste & see if underclocking is an option.