GT710 screen resolution

Plankton said:

Why are you using a VGA cable? VGA doesn't support 1080P. You need to use either a DVI or HDMI cable.

Post a screenshot of your device manager with your display adapters expanded.

D-Sub/VGA supports 1920x1080 but does not support HDCP.

You should be OK with that monitor and resolution, I see the choice is VGA or HDMI at 1920 x 1080 native resolution. 22" Very standard, no problemo.

You do have to look at the BIOS/UEFI to see what the situation is as regards switching, or setting the Graphics default to integrated, or GT 710 Graphics Card.
As I said before, both graphics chipsets will do some standard video modes for Safe Mode with a basic driver which is part of the point of Safe Mode.

No idea why you are using Safe Mode at all.

"The NVIDIA install process removes the driver for the onboard graphics."
That is not the case. The Nvidia driver only installs the driver for the GT 710 Graphics Card.

Just connect up the GT 710 Graphics Card with an HDMI lead to your monitor, that is it, nothing more complex. Check the BIOS/UEFI for Graphics settings.

1. I only needed Safe Mode briefly to check performance issues.
2. The onboard graphics driver has disappeared completely and I did not remove it. The drivers list only shows the GT710 driver and the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. The only conclusion is that it was removed by the installation process.
3. After installing the card, I had started with only an HDMi cable.
4. The motherboard BIOS allows the choice of onboard chipset yes/no. I set it to no. Maybe that's the reason the driver no longer appears in the list..

New discovery:
After again removing the VGA cable and attempting to go into Safe Mode, on clicking the restart button, the screen immediately goes black. I waited five minutes, just in case there was a slow reaction. I then operated the input selection switch on the monitor 3 times (VGA, DVI and back to HDMi) and voila, there was my Safe Mode screen. It therefore seems to be a function of the monitor that you have to manually release the HDMi input and reconnect it in order to receive the signal modified by Safe Mode.
I'm sure I'm not the first to make this discovery but, despite lots of searching on the Internet, I have not seen it mentioned elsewhere.

Just to add a further observation:
This does not happen with the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter.

Just to tail-end this story - I gave up on NVIDIA drivers and reverted permanently to the MS driver. I also enabled the Group Policy item 'Do not include drivers with Windows Update'. The GT710 card seems to be working fine and I have no more black screens that appeared to be due to the limitations of the onboard graphics chipset.
Furthermore, I don't get the black screen when trying to get into Safe Mode and I don't get thrown out of File Explorer when I right-click on a folder.

I realise that I am defying the odds by challenging an ancient motherboard. I just reached the point where the NVIDIA drivers are a step too far for an aging CPU. Fortunately, the MS driver does everything with the GT710 that I need. It's a point worth making for other non-gamers who just want to keep their old destop going a bit longer.