System freezes after video driver update

gnpfrslo

Posts: 62   +10
Yesterday, I got a message from the Radeon update software (crimson) that there were updates available; I though it would actually be a good time to install them since I was a bit busy with other things. For the most part, it went without a hitch, up until a little after I went back to the computer to check some things and the screen suddenly turned black "oh, ok it must be the video drivers" I thought, but after a few seconds the monitor did turn on again, only that it was completely black save for the mouse pointer which was not responding; the entire screen was frozen. I waited some more time and came back to be greeted by the same picture... I forced the computer to turn off; when it started up again, it shew me the HP startup logo, then flicked into black, then the logo again, but the little dots you'd see rolling beneath being the only indication that the screen had frozen yet again.

The first thing I tried was system recovery, didn't work with none of 3 available recovery points.

Then I went for the CMD, first with SFC /scannow, it said it fixed some things but there were 26 issues that couldn't be resolved (I managed to open the file later and found most of these were shortcut files from somewhere inside the windows folder, are there any serious threats I should be worried about?).

Afterwards, using chkdsk /f gives me the "can't unblock the disk, unit is protected against writing" message, running in read only mode, it tells me there are errors and that I should use the /F command. An issue I have encountered before. So, finally, I try to boot in safe mode, to my surprise and unlike last time, it runs; but after realizing I have not enough external storage available to backup all my important files (which is why I don't have an image backup either) and remembering how the whole thing started; I figured I perhaps only needed to reinstall the drivers, but I only found more trouble:

1) when trying to run the Radeon crimson software, it tells me: "error with detector driver; contact support"
2) when trying to uninstall software and all or just the latest drivers, I get: "unknown error. Please, close the program and start the installer again".

Specifications:
System: HP Pavilion 14 n007la
Processor: AMD A6-5200 APU (2GHz)
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 8400 / R3 series
OS: Windows 10 x64

So, is there anything I can do before resorting to formatting?
 
Safe mode & remove video drivers entirely.

Check AMD forum.

Anti-malware scan.

If able to boot and resolve other issues, consider reinstalling video driver - an earlier WHQL version.
 
Removed video drivers; didn't work. Do I have to use third party software, or is the device manager enough?
Made anti malware scan; found some adware and browser hijackers, surprised since a couple of weeks ago I had made already made an antivirus scan. system restarted at the end and lost all my firefox sync info. No change on normal boot procedure.
Checked AMD forum yesterday; found no responses, made a thread, still no replies.
 
Removed video drivers; didn't work. Unclear what 'didn't work' means. On reboot Windows should have replaced the missing video card driver with a generic driver at the least. Win10 should have identified a known good driver. If not you should install WHQL driver (previous version)

a couple of weeks ago I had made already made an antivirus scan Scan daily for the next few weeks at least. Try Anti-malwarebytes (free), just to see what is lurking in the corridors.

system restarted at the end Turn off 'auto-restart and review stop codes and messages if you get blue screen - keep notes. Also, check Event Viewer in Admin Tools to see if there is a critical error which identifies a bad driver, etc
 
Removed video drivers; didn't work. Unclear what 'didn't work' means. On reboot Windows should have replaced the missing video card driver with a generic driver at the least. Win10 should have identified a known good driver. If not you should install WHQL driver (previous version)
I meant that it didn't fix the problem, I uninstalled the drivers, restarted the pc and got exactly the same result (OS tries to load then shows the HP logo again and freezes).

Didn't get blue screens, didn't get anything; it restarted because Malwarebytes told me it needed to restart to fully remove all the threats.

The only driver-related errors the event viewer gives me are ones related to my usb peripherals (which I already disconected).
 
Disregard the last post, turns out that after rebooting; the pc would reinstall the last driver. I manually installed MS' generic driver and turned out just fine
 
Back