PC Drivers & Software

[MountainManLXXV]

I'm running a not-exciting HP desktop with one of the Erica motherboards, a Ryzen 4600G, and a Radeon PRO WX3100. Worked great for running multiple displays without consuming a lot of power running high resolutions or refresh rates that I don't need. This setup was largely problem-free for exactly a year.

Now Windows Update sneaks a driver update in that it calls "Pci Bus" and the Radeon Software can't launch and errors out with a PA-300. I had Windows update look for other drivers locally AND via the web service, and it tells me it's all good. I look around for driver files to manually select a previous one, with limited success. I used Device Manager to roll back the driver, and it asks to restart, and gives me ONE display, running a "Microsoft Basic Display Driver"

...Naturally Radeon Software doesn't see anything and still does not launch at this point.

I ran the Radeon Software installer, with the Factory Reset option checked, as instructed in the KB for PA-300, and it works perfectly! Great news! ...Until it doesn't. Sometimes the problem will resurface when I'm away from the computer and the displays go to sleep, sometimes it will just relapse on its own and cut down to one display again.

I don't mind periodically refreshing things, but on this machine it takes about 20 minutes to do the reinstall and two reboots, and that cuts into productivity quite a bit.

Does anyone out there have a hypothesis for what's happening here and/or how to fix it?

Windows 10 no longer has the update exclusion options it once had, and since this is Windows 10 Home, I don't have Group Policy controls. I'd rather not go rooting through the registry and adding keys to change the update behavior. It seems like there should be a better way.

I welcome any questions or comments, and will update this if I find a fix.

[elstaci · Accepted solution]

Yes seems  like you can't hide any Windows Updates anymore. I have Windows 10/11 Pro I was able to do it through Group Policies to prevent Windows from installing drivers on my PC.

Home doesn't have that option but I believe you can enable Group Policy feature which is hidden in Windows 10/11 Home version but this site shows how to enable it: https://www.majorgeeks.com/content/page/enable_group_policy_editor_in_windows_10_home_edition.html

The first method is using a Batch file to download and enable Group Policy in Home version.

BUT if the above 3 methods doesn't work 100% you can use Microsoft Hide/Unhide Tool. Unfortunately, Microsoft has removed that specific tool from being downloaded.

But the same site I linked still has a download for that tool: https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_show_or_hide_updates_troubleshooter.html

NOTE: I just downloaded the tool and it is the same one I have.

EDIT: I tagged AMD Moderator of Professional GPU Cards but he seems to be unavailable for the time being @fsadough 

[MountainManLXXV]

Thank you for the quick, concise, and elegant response and solution! I haven't been in the habit of digging around in the behind-the-scenes mechanisms of Windows since XP days. I guess I've been lucky. I only tried the first solution, because it worked perfectly, right out of the gate. I appreciate that the batch file produces a text document with a list of the items it changed. Hopefully I won't need that information, but it's nice to have all the same.

Thanks again for your help!

[MountainManLXXV]

I wanted to chime in with a "Your mileage may vary" response, as I continue to tune and adjust the machine in question. I did end up using the hack to add the "show/hide updates" facility. Removing the drivers from Windows update bought an additional 24 hours before the exact same problem happened. I felt it would be due diligence to describe "the rest of the story" as it evolves.

I'm guessing the problem is related to shared resources which previously worked for the (now theoretically "old" and entry level) WX3100 and also for more flagship-type hardware, but now does not, with the higher-end cards sporting features which this one does not.

I'd bet the Windows Update works great for cards with newer architectures and the mirepoix of hardware and firmware you'd find on other systems, but for my case, I'm running Windows 10 Home 21H2, build 19044.1415 with Experience Pack 120.2212.3920.0 on what is mostly an HP TP01-1337c, which is the Ryzen 5 4600G standard big box store kind of machine. I've added and changed a number of parts, as I do, but I did damage the registry while trying to restore Windows Photo Viewer, so it's a clean reinstall without the HP add-ons. My guess is part of the OEM install includes chipset flags to help Windows Update to what it needs to do. In the absence of those, I think what's happening is that the integrated graphics in the 4600G are showing up and Windows is trying to service that functionality as if it's the primary display adapter. With multiple monitors hooked up to the WX3100, obviously this isn't the case, but that's a QA wormhole I'm not digging into.

Windows Update tries (and succeeds) to place a driver it calls Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Display 30.0.13026.3 and when it does, one monitor still works as intended, but Radeon Software cannot launch, and Windows cannot see additional displays.

I am certain there is hardware where this works, but as I look around, I see Windows 11 users struggling with this driver update as well, so I suspect it's not for that. Regardless, using the show/hide updates function allowed me to suspend it, and I can certainly restore the functions I've suppressed, if things change and I need to update to a different, later driver version.

I just wanted to add all of this to make it easier for others with the same problem to find this reasonably easy-to-use solution.

And of course, props again to elstaci for jumping in so quickly with the fixes I needed to keep the system chugging along!

[elstaci]

Maybe @fsadough can chime in to your last reply. I not really familiar with AMD Pro GPU Cards and its drivers that much or how they interact with Windows OS.

If Windows Update is causing issue with a AMD Radeon Pro driver it should be brought to AMD attention.  FSADOUGH will be able to determine if this is the case or not.

[MountainManLXXV]

Perhaps @fsadough has seen something like this and can chime in, but sadly, I got about 5 hours uptime with the machine today, and Windows did its thing again. I'm going to take this to the Microsoft forums and see if I can get and gurus there to find a way to put a lid on this. If they have any good fixes, I'll make sure to share them here. I'm disappointed with the Windows infrastructure, that it can be set to not do a thing in multiple ways, but still do the thing without warning or obstacle. Deep sigh. I used to run Linux on a machine in the same role as this one and got out of the habit because there's a lot of software that "just works" on Windows, and saving time and headaches is nice. Having perfectly good hardware fail because someone signed off on software that wasn't QAd properly is tedious. No egg on AMD's face in this case, as far as I can tell, but it's like having a situation where your coffee maker starts and your toilet flushes, just because you opened the front door to check the weather. I'd have thought most of the Microsoft bugs would be confined to Windows 11. Alas.

Again, I'll post back here if any good fixes come to light.

[MountainManLXXV]

Just to wrap things up: I posted about this over on the official Microsoft channels and the result was absolute crickets after 5 days. Methodically speaking, it's a good news/bad news joke. I'm not sure if additional reboots helped to clear something and apply the update method changes I added, or if it was fixed by the other thing that happened...

2022-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 21H2 FOR X64-based Systems (KB5009543)

After wrangling with the driver conflicts, this update came up and I installed it, and now everything is fine. If there's interest, I can remove the Group Policy exception and the Hide/Unhide effects to see if it's a combination, or just the Windows update. Otherwise, rock on, and thanks again.