Issue with Graphics Card and Blank Screen?

I've had this issue for a very long time now, and it's still something I'm trying to work on, because if I don't fix it, it's going to ruin the games I play by blacking my screen out all the time.

The graphics card I have is a Nvidia GeForce 9200. I have an Acer Aspire Windows 8 desktop (Professional), with an AMD Athlon II X2 215 Processor. The memory is 4.0GB

Yes, I'll admit, a crappy PC for playing lots of games in general and to be honest, a bit like dogcrap. lol I bought this back in 2009, and it was on sale at the time, because I had to replace my falling apart PC before it that could have been better.

The main issue I am having revolves around updating from Windows Update. I had to start doing it manually because the screen was blacking out every time I clicked on Windows 8 to be the OS I want to start up, where my monitor flicks on and off repeatedly with no stop in sight, even though I can hear the start-up screen in the background of it all. I think the issue is mainly with trying to install ANY Windows 8 update (because I have tried), and the same goes with updating Nvidia (manually and through Windows Update). I have had this issue for more than 4 months now, and it's becoming maddening. I'm not sure if I should just hope I'll win a PC giveaway at some point, or hope my tax refund this year will help me get another PC that might be better than this pain in the butt.

I have noticed that this graphics card might not be that compatible with Windows 8 from checking Nvidia's list, and that's why I'm afraid it might be a graphics card issue.

I'll post the dxdiag if needed, and let me know if I can provide any other help with my issue. Thanks everyone.

I've had the black screen issue with the 9800gt which I think is a newer card than the 9200.

My black screen issues arose as soon as you booted into Win 8. I would have got a few minutes of usage but when entering the desktop area - bingo, black screen of death.

As my card like yours, is an older card, it will not run on the newer drivers. After many weeks of frustration, I installed the older 295.73 drivers from the Nvida site and hide any updates that windows offers.

Basically due to the age of the card, I'm stuck with these drivers for ever more. My guess you have the same problem. I'm assuming that at one stage the card worked until updates were applied via Windows?

I booted in safe mode and ran a utility called driversweeper befor I installed the downgraded drivers. Might be worth a blast!

Thanks, I really appreciate the help. Still, here's to hoping I win a desktop computer giveaway at some point; anything can be possible, but I'll keep in mind the possibility of using old drivers.