PC Drivers & Software

[sick-of-dell]

Hello,

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop with a Ryzen 2500U and its associated integrated graphics chip. Recently, the screen began randomly turning black (with the backlight still on), at first when resuming from sleep mode, but today, it started happening when using the computer, and much more frequently. When the AMD graphics driver is not installed, and the Microsoft generic driver is being used, the computer works normally. With the AMD driver installed, the black screen issue occurs.

I just installed a clean copy of Windows 10. Before connecting to the Internet or doing anything else, I installed the latest driver published by AMD, Adrenalin 22.11.2 (not sure of the actual driver version number). A few seconds after the installer completed, the screen turned black again. I uninstalled the driver in safe mode, rebooted to normal mode, and installed the last version provided by Dell, version 23.20.815.6656, and the machine froze before the installer completed, this time without blacking out the display.

I can't find anyone else with this problem, but I'm not sure how it could be anything but a driver issue considering that the display works perfectly unless the computer is booted into Windows and the AMD driver is loaded. Does anyone have any thoughts or troubleshooting steps I've missed?

[kingfish]

Are you installing the correct driver? With laptop APU's you update the processor not the graphics chip. This updates the APU and the graphics chip

https://www.amd.com/en/support

Correct driver > https://www.amd.com/en/support/apu/amd-ryzen-processors/amd-ryzen-5-mobile-processors-radeon-vega-gr... 

I would do a clean install using DDU in safe mode. Reboot and install the AMD driver. Reboot.

[sick-of-dell]

Hi Kingfish,

Thanks for the reply. That's the exact driver that I've been using, and I installed it on a fresh copy of Windows with the same effect.

[kingfish]

In your above posts the order that you used to reinstall W10 does not show you fully updating the OS before trying to install the AMD drivers. The current version and all updates is a requirement for installing AMD software. 

[sick-of-dell]

Thanks for the suggestion. I uninstalled the driver with DDU, then let Windows fully update. After it installed the updates, Windows Update installed the AMD graphics driver again, immediately causing the black screen. So now, the latest version, the Windows Update version, and the dell-provided version are now all having the same effect.

[kingfish]

OK...prevent windows update from changing / installing graphics drivers.

https://community.amd.com/t5/general-discussions/how-to-stop-updates-for-drivers-with-windows-update...

[sick-of-dell]

The version of the driver isn't the problem. Every driver version I have tried causes a black screen whether Windows Update installs it or not. Again, this is now on a clean Windows 10 install that is now fully updated.

The black screen is the problem, not Windows Update

[kingfish]

You said "  After it installed the updates, Windows Update installed the AMD graphics driver again, immediately causing the black screen. "

Take the recommendation and prevent the updates as posted. 

[sick-of-dell]

Okay, I removed the driver with DDU again. I now have a fully patched W10 system running the generic display driver. Windows Update is set to not install device drivers. Should I try and install a version of the AMD driver again?

[kingfish]

Setting the updates to pause for a certain length of time does not work for graphics drivers. You must use the group policy to do that. After you have done that. Reboot your computer and install the correct AMD driver.