How do I fix my computer when graphics are broken?
How do I fix my computer when graphics are broken?
Hi Folks - Got a bit of a conundrum that has me stumped. I have an old Dell laptop that has windows 10 on. Works well and only use it for very basic tasks, but it has one problem. It has an Intel and Radeon graphics setup, but the Radeon seems to have packed up - not a problem as the laptop works fine and don't need the extra "oomph" from the Radeon (although as its old its more of a "phhh") But the problem is any attempt to update to a new windows 10 version stops and crashes when it tries to put on the graphics driver during update. Tried disabling Radeon in system, uninstalling drivers etc. But you can tell when it gets to the driver part of the install and see's the Radeon as the screen flickers and freezes and then fails and rollback to preupdate. Cant see anything in bios to disable the Radeon. I dare not do a clean install as not sure I would ever get past the crash part. Is my poor old Dell stuck in a moebius loop of no updates - or has anyone got a suggestion. Cheers as always Tarelus
Welcome to the forums! Make sure to tell everyone about your Dell model and SKU so they know who you are. I'm going to try to reinstall the operating system myself, but after reading what people wrote here, I'm afraid not to do a clean install because I fear crashing again when it happens. It probably makes more sense just to leave things alone for now. If you were me instead, you should check if your BIOS is updated and use a tool called GPU-Z to make sure your discrete graphics card isn't broken or failing. Sometimes hybrid GPUs need both drivers installed before the main one works properly. I'd try running DDU to remove all existing graphics drivers, then manually reinstall them using the Dell support site (you'll find your laptop's service tag there) and see if they come back working. When the GPU finally shows up and those updates stop taking over things, it's very likely that your operating system is broken. Sadly, I'm not you, so maybe that could leave your laptop unusable forever. If you don't have another computer to switch to when this one fails, then I'd just leave it alone for now.
Thanks Lutfij - sorry I was a bit late, but I really appreciate you. Just today got it working. Windows keeps asking me to install the latest version, but the install fails and rolls back. So I waited for it to ask; disconnected my web, went into safe mode, ran Display Driver Uninstaller to remove any Radeon stuff lurking around, restarted, and made sure the second GPU was disabled (labeled as Microsoft display adapter) then applied update (still offline). Hey presto it worked this time without trying to update the broken Radeon (still listed it as Microsoft display adapter which I then disabled again). So perhaps being offline during the install part seemed to have done the trick... I think! I am sure I tried this way once in my many attempts, but it worked this time!!!! Cheers