Remove anything linked to nvidia

sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia*

sudo apt-get autoremove

Disable Nouveau driver. Blacklist the modules. Open the blacklist.conf file.

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Add the following in blacklist.conf file

blacklist nouveau

blacklist lbm-nouveau

Save the file and exit.

Reboot,

sudo shutdown -r now

Switch to console mode

ctrl+alt+F1

stop the display manager

sudo service lightdm stop

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

Download latest driver from Nvidia official website

This will download .run file. (in my case NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.48.run). Save the file in download directory

Install the driver

cd to Download directory

cd Download

run the driver

sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.48.run

(change the filename accordingly)

Test the driver

sudo shutdown -r now nvidia-smi

If all is good - a table showing various driver properties will appear on terminal.