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My laptop worked just fine until 2 days ago. After exiting some program windows crashed and I had to restart my laptop. After restart (windows booted) I got black screen with cursor. I googled it and find out that it could be a GPU problem, so from safe mode I disabled my AMD Radeon HD 8xxxM (8500M/8700M to be precise) driver and after that windows was working fine until this crash happened again. Again from safe mode I saw that GPU driver is enabled (windows enabled it somehow...).

After that I downloaded Display Driver Uninstaller and used it from safe mode to disable my driver and now it works just fine but I am not able to use my GPU now...

I tried to update my windows but also in the middle of update I get black screen (I think it downloads and enables GPU driver during update).

Installing all possible versions of AMD Catalyst didn't work. I tried "Automatically Detect and Install Your Driver" and "Manually Select Your Driver" and even installing versions which are not for my driver and my OS. (somewhere in middle of process I get one time black screen blink and after that it is persistent and I have to go to safe mode and use DDU all over again)

So I am stuck here, not able to update my windows, without my GPU (I am not gamer, I just want picture on my external monitor) and desperate.

Solutions I found until now includes removing drivers with DDU and reinstalling Catalyst but that doesn't work for me.

My configuration

GPU: AMD Radeon HD 8500M/8700M

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro

Possible problem that I haven't checked: Could it be hardware problem? (dead GPU?)

Possible solution that I haven't tried: 1) Reinstalling Windows. (could it help?). 2) Disabling GPU and updating windows.

EDIT

Laptop model: Dell Inspirion 5521

Programs I installed 3-5 days before crash (causality?): Adobe Flash Player 18 NPAPI, Drobox (update) and Popcorn Time.

EDIT 1

I think I found something really important. I have also Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 and when I install drivers for both intel and radeon I get black screen. When only intel driver is installed it's working and when only radeon driver is installed I got error Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43). Maybe this could be useful for someone to help me solve this issue.

CURRENT STATUS 7/21/2015

I wasn't able to find correct solution for this. Thanks @Divin3 for your help!

I was closest to solution when I downloaded all video drivers from dell.com (official website) for my laptop model and install them in order Intel -> restart -> Radeon (I wasnt getting black screen) -> restart (after second restart there was black screen).

Installing previous versions and beta versions also didn't work for me, so now I am waiting to update to Windows 10 and will install all drivers there.

For now I have only installed Intel video drivers - thats my current solution.

If I solve this problem I will update my quesiton for future generations...

HOW I SOLVED IT

I wasn't able to find official solution for this problem.

After upgrading to windows 10 both my drivers were updated and both are working properly now.

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  • 1
    What is the model of your laptop? Also, do You use other software that can affect the graphics? My first guess is some sort of compatibility issue.
    – Divin3
    Jul 15, 2015 at 12:37
  • 1
    Can You disable the GPU from the bios?
    – Divin3
    Jul 15, 2015 at 12:43
  • 1
    well it can help You update your windows, and see what happens next. If You disable it and the Windows update gets a black screen again, at least we know the issue is not from the GPU.
    – Divin3
    Jul 15, 2015 at 15:40
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    I have found a few solutions to error code 43: like powering off your device (turn your laptop off and take the battery out for 5 minutes). Also there is a Microsoft fix/diagnostics software for this issue support.microsoft.com/en-us/mats/hardware_device_problems Lots of users say that they have the same problem on Dell after a recent driver update. So You should also try to install an earlier version of the driver. They say that they had the same experience: the screen went black.
    – Divin3
    Jul 15, 2015 at 19:38
  • 1
    Did you managed to get it working? If I helped, tell me, so I can convert my helpful comment into an answer. If You found another solution, you should write your own answer so the post can be closed.
    – Divin3
    Jul 29, 2015 at 22:30

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