There seems to be a problem with the Toshiba laptop video.
There seems to be a problem with the Toshiba laptop video.
Hi everyone,
I own a Toshiba Satellite A350, bought in 2009 with an ATI Radeon HD 3400 graphics card. It has a Centrino 2 processor and 3GB of RAM, running Windows Vista Home. The original SATA hard disks failed recently, so I switched to a Crucial SSD with 512 GB capacity. After that, I moved to Windows 10 Home, 64 bit, which is working fine. I installed some Toshiba drivers, though some were already included in the OS.
I encountered problems where the Wi-Fi was turned off by the Windows OS (Wi-Fi settings were set to 'off'), and later a service person hooked up an internal switch and added an external Wi-Fi dongle. The Toshiba model has an external switch for Wi-Fi, which is also controlled via the F8 key. Recently, I started experiencing issues with the video display. It usually happens after a reboot following a software update—Windows, antivirus, etc. It might just be a coincidence.
There’s no display on the laptop screen. Pressing the power button and then clicking Esc sometimes resolves the issue, and the video appears on the screen. When connected to an external monitor or TV via HDMI, the video shows clearly. I’ve also used a boot-up CD with Kali Linux, which brought up the display. On restart, the internal display works intermittently.
I tried adjusting power plan settings—sleep, resume for the power button, and actions in battery—but the fast startup option is enabled. The ATI graphics power settings, ATI PowerPlay settings, and BIOS power-on options are all set. The Windows display driver is ATI Mobility Radeon HD3400 series, version 8.970.100.9001, dated 13-01-2015, with a 256MB memory card. The monitor driver in Windows is generic PNP.
I’m unsure if the problem lies with the BIOS, hardware, Windows, or drivers. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
You might attempt to set up the driver in compatibility mode, such as right-clicking the installer, selecting Properties, then the Compatibility tab, and choosing Windows X from the dropdown menu indicating the OS the drivers are intended for.
It’s unclear how you managed to install Windows 10 on a laptop with an unsupported processor. In 2025, it’s more practical to switch to another system since 3GB of RAM is insufficient today, and support for Windows 10 ends soon.
It’s difficult to pinpoint whether the problem lies in the BIOS, hardware, Windows version, or driver compatibility.
High confidence that multiple factors are involved; older hardware running Windows 10 can cause instability and eventual failure. I’ve encountered laptops with overheating chipsets after migrating them to Windows 10, especially those originally built for Windows 7.
Although Windows 10 doesn't officially support even Sandy Bridge chips such as i7-2700k, it has consistently functioned with Core 2 processors, including the Montevina models found in Centrino 2, which were based on the 45nm Penryn architecture. Centrino 2 introduced the ability to switch between a discrete GPU and the integrated graphics unit, allowing power savings. This configuration often caused issues when using drivers not provided by the manufacturer, as installing the integrated graphics and discrete GPU drivers required careful sequencing. 8.970.100.9001 remains the sole available driver for HD 2000/3000/4000 series, developed by Microsoft for the original RTM launch version 1507 of Windows 10. It doesn't support features like Catalyst Control Center or OpenGL. For the most recent official AMD driver, use AMD_Catalyst_13.4_Legacy_Beta_Vista_Win7_Win8, but you must install it manually. Follow these steps: download and extract the legacy driver, run the installer after closing all files in C:\AMD, or run it in Windows 8 compatibility mode with admin rights. Open Device Manager, locate your display adapter, right-click and select Update Driver Software, choose Browse my computer for driver software, then browse to the specified installation path and follow the prompts. After installation, restart your computer. This method enables the use of CCC and OpenGL in Windows 10 with a legacy graphics card. It's worth mentioning that the driver version installed via Device Manager is outdated (8.970.100.0 from 24APR2013), which is older than the automatically generated version by Windows 10 (8.970.100.9001 from 13JAN2015). Subsequent updates may replace this driver automatically, potentially requiring adjustments to avoid conflicts. You'll know a problem has occurred if CCC fails to launch.
I don’t have Linux right now; I’m using only Windows 10. The screen is only visible through an external TV connected via HDMI. I’m unable to see even the initial boot screen, which contains the key for entering BIOS settings or selecting the boot device.
I use the laptop for browsing, working on documents, and occasionally watching video streams.
The laptop has a function F8 that lets me switch between the laptop screen and an external display. I’ve read about problems with older Toshiba laptops under Windows 10, where the function keys didn’t work (for example, enabling or disabling wireless via F8).
I’m wondering if this could be the cause. There’s a BIOS setting called “Power On Display” – I set it to auto-select. The other option is LCD + CRT. My Phoenix BIOS version is v2.30. Should I consider a BIOS update?
I checked the following page:
https://www.amd.com/en/resources/support...egacy.html
Additionally, ATI Radeon graphics series reached peak performance optimization in October 2013.
The last operating system that supported these graphics with AMD drivers was Microsoft Windows® 8 with the AMD Catalyst 13.1 driver package. It can be downloaded from the AMD Driver page:
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download
Driver support for these products under Windows® 8.1 and Windows® 10 is only available through Windows Update. Please enable Windows Update so it can automatically detect and install the display driver version 8.970.100.9001.
Hello, the Windows settings from PC properties indicate
Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU.
The operating system is Windows 10 Home.
Display Settings - advanced display has only one display.
Display 1: Sony TV connected to ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series.
In Device Manager, there is just one entry under Display Adapters - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series.
Given this, should I adjust the troubleshooting steps?
Thanks for the reply . I am a little lost here.
The motherboard is made by toshiba - I can not see the hardware specs of the graphics. How do I see the details of the integrated graphics processor (intel) ? I see only ati radeon hd driver . There is a bios option for boot on display - auto select / lcd + crt . power plans also have ati powerplay option .
thanks in advance
Hi, here are your updates:
I downloaded drivers from the provided link earlier. The Windows 10 22H2 version already included some drivers.
I attempted to restart the video driver using Ctrl + Shift + Windows + B. I also tried projecting the screen with Windows + P. After restarting, sometimes both internal and external screens appeared. This seems to happen occasionally.
What could be the problem? Thanks in advance. This is for a Toshiba motherboard, and I’m not sure if there are any other missing drivers. I also installed the AMD Catalyst installer.