iMac 2008 (24") Running Windows x64 BootCamp - NVIDIA Driver Crashes Everything

I have a 24" Apple iMac with a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics card running Windows x64. Everything runs beautifully save one problem...if I install graphics drivers - any at all - the computer crashes like crazy.

I've searched innumerable websites for some kind of solution, downloaded various different versions of drivers (including betas), booted into safe mode, and tried a clean boot - but nothing I've tried resolves the issue.

Perhaps the graphics card is just fried and I don't know it (and I'm too much of a perplexed coward to actually remove it), but the Windows side is working better than the Mac side, because booting into OS X causes the iMac to crash within 10 seconds no matter what I do; at least on the Windows side, the computer will survive even though it has no drivers installed. Too bad that using the integrated graphics in Windows isn't an option.

Can anyone suggest other options for me to troubleshoot this?

Solution 1:

this is Gidoza (original poster) I'm just responding from elsewhere so don't mind the name change. :)

I have Mac OSX El Capitan - it originally worked fine, and I installed Windows 7 x64 through that. I used the standard BootCamp software that could be downloaded for this brand of computer, the latest version...I don't recall which one that is though.

Sorry, but I don't know what a BIOS or an EFI is.