So my replacement video card shows up last night and I go to install it. I download the latest NVidia driver for Win7 x64 and start the process of switching out the card.
Upon reboot, Win7 starts to try and download a driver to install. Of course I do the old fashioned thing of stopping the installation. These new drivers are WHQL certified according to NVidia. Well, it seems stopping the automated install really messes with things. The new er driver comes back as having an invalid signature from Microsoft. Just an uninstall of the card and driver brings things back to the newer driver. An hour later after totally removing the newer driver and letting Windows install the older driver, the card works.
Now of course I”ll try to upgrade the driver tonight, but I do find it a little painful that you risk problems if you stop Win7 from the automatic install.