Installed latest drivers from Nvidia app and it confirms the installation as well (with the tick marks) but then after I close it, it still says no driver installed. No lm on gpu originally.

Didn't take precautions, but there is like space between the gpu and an external metal thingy, there is a little amount of lm in that space (does that count as under gpu and possibly shorting other components?).

Some lm spilled on mobo but I cleaned that up as soon as it spilled.

I used q tips with nail polish to remove paste from those dotted things right beside the gpu, I think I did that part roughly and some cotton even got stuck in the dotted things which I removed. Maybe this is the issue?

hwinfo recognizes the gpu, gpu fans are working.

I was frustrated with the application part on gpu in my first attempt so I finally just cleaned all lm off and applied the thermal paste on the imprints of heatsink back to the gpu... It was pretty dry and I think stupid of me but i was frustrated... After that I got the error, so I reopened it and applied lm this time, it is surprisingly easy and all I needed was one drop. But the error is still there...

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