PC Drivers & Software

[beepboop]

System:

• AMD Graphics Card
  • AMD Radeon R5 M335
• Desktop or Laptop System
  • Laptop- Dell Inspiron 5559
• Operating System
  • Windows 10 Home 64bit
• Driver version installed
  • Adrenalin Edition 17.12.1
• Motherboard + Bios Revision
  • Don't know what the motherboard is. Bios Version is Dell Inc 1.4.1 08/12/2017 (I don't know why it has this date, as I installed the latest bios released on the 8th of Jan to protect against Spectre/Meltdown.)
• CPU/APU
  • Intel Core i5-6200U
• RAM
  • 8GB

I hope I've included all relevant info correctly here.

Ok, on the 12th of Jan, I used the Dell website to check for updates as I wanted the Bios that protects against Spectre/Meltdown and the Dell update program on my computer wasn't giving me any new updates. The Dell website said there were four updates that I needed, one of which was an update for Radeon (this one here AMD Radeon R5 M335/M315 Driver Driver Details | Dell Australia)

I decided to first check AMD Radeon Settings for updates as I hadn't received any update notifications in a while but it would not open. So I went ahead and let the Dell website install the update it suggested. After completion, AMD Radeon Settings still wouldn't open.

I then found kingfish's instructions (here Clean Install AMD Graphics Drivers) and followed them.

I used the Reg edits method described in Option four here Windows 10 Forums and the Control Panel method described in Option one here Windows 10 Forums to prevent/delay Microsoft automatically changing/installing graphics drivers.

There was only one AMD program listed under Add/Remove Programs but I couldn't uninstall it as it kept crashing as soon as I tried to.I can't remember what it was called but it was removed once I ran DDU. I also found AMD Problem Report Wizard in the Start Menu and used the Uninstall option there for it.

Now that I had completed kingfish's instructions, I installed Adrenalin Edition 17.12.2 (which is currently listed as optional).

After completion, AMD Radeon Settings was opening, appearing in the tray and working fine.

Then yesterday, the 13th of Jan, I turned on my laptop to find that AMD Radeon Settings was now once again not opening.

This time i only ran DDU and deleted the files out of the AMD folder while my internet connection was disabled before trying installing Adrenalin Edition 17.12.1 this time.

After completion, AMD Radeon Settings was once again opening, appearing in the tray and working fine. However, after an unknown amount of time, it disappears from the tray and will no longer open. I decided to leave it for the night and see if it worked the next day.

Today, I turned on my laptop and AMD Radeon Settings is still not opening.

I tried running the DISM command and SFC command described here Troubleshooting Common AMD Graphics Driver Installation Problems but those didn't find anything or help.

I've checked task manager to see what actually happens when I try opening AMD Radeon Settings and "Radeon Settings: Host Application" and "Radeon Settings: Command Line Interface" both appear for a few seconds before disappearing.

"AMD External Events Client Module" and "AMD External Events Service Module" are always in task manager but I don't know if that information helps.

Does anyone here know what the problem is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I'd like to apologise for the long wall of text. I hope I've included all relevant and helpful information.

Oh, by the way, in some older threads on the forum here where people were facing similar problems, I noticed it was suggested to check if .Net Framework and Visual C++ were installed and up to date. Is this something I should look at? I know that I have the latest version of .NET Framework (4.7.1) but Visual C++ is confusing and overwhelming. I have a whole bunch of different Visual C++'s installed and don't know how to check what's missing or needed.

Message was edited by: Matt B

We have updated the title of this discussion with relevant details to better describe your issue.

[Matt_AMD]

Fully update Windows.

Please run DDU again and then download the latest compible AMD driver. Navigate to C:\AMD Folder and delete the folder that says WU2. Now install the AMD driver and restart.

Download and run the hide updates troubleshooter and hide any AMD entry you see and click next.

Hopefully that should resolve your issue.

[beepboop]

Thanks for the reply.

I'll give your your suggestion a shot but I don't know what the "hide updates troubleshooter" is.

[Matt_AMD]

Sorry my copy paste failed me. https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/3073930/how-to-temporarily-prevent-a-driver-update-from-rei...

[beepboop]

Ok, I've followed your instructions. There was no folder named WU2 though.

Everything is working for now, so I just need to wait and see if it stays that way.

[Matt_AMD]

Let's hope.

[beepboop]

It's stopped working again.

I checked windows update history and the driver in device manager and, despite using the hide updates troubleshooter, windows decided to update the drivers itself last night.

I checked the hide updates troubleshooter and it's only showing one of the two AMD options that I hid under "show hidden updates". The other AMD option I hid is no longer showing up, even in the "hide updates" screen.

[goodplay]

You might want to have a look at these additional options,

Go to 'tenforums.com' > Tutorial Index (scroll down to the links).

There's also one for,

[beepboop]

Is it really safe to permanently disable those options?

I already used options from two of those pages (as mentioned in my original post) to temporarily stop windows doing anything when I did my first clean uninstall with DDU. I didn't bother doing them on subsequent DDU uses as I'm not comfortable with messing around with settings like that too much and I'm even less comfortable with setting them in place permanently as it seems it could cause more problems in the future.

Permanently disabling Windows Update seem like it would be an even worse idea.

[goodplay]

Well, no you wouldn't disable WU permanently, and some of the options can't be used on Home vers.

The wu hide or show is/has been known to reset itself if you do a manual check, you might want to reread that tut. and/or ask on that thread.

It's a well trusted OS forum, all their tweaks are tested, updated when necessary.

Query your worries with them, they'll set your mind to rest.