[SOLVED] Can't install display driver. Not even Microsoft Basic Display Adapter

[oopsibrokemypc]

Summary: Tried to reinstall display drivers and now I can't install either NVIDIA drivers or reinstall Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. Very worried I might've bricked my laptop's GPU because of it.

Errors and Specs:

https://imgur.com/a/m3sSUzp

Detailed Story:

I've been having issues recently when playing any games on my laptop where the game would be running fine then the frame rate would just drop to rather significantly to what feels like 30 FPS or even lower and the only way to fix it is to, interesting, ALT-TAB back into the game the and the frame rate would stabilize. They're games I've played before that ran perfectly fine even when my laptop was pretty dirty and I haven't cleaned it for months but now I'm getting it across every games that I play.

I've decided to reinstall my graphics driver to see if that solves any issues and, after looking through DDU's website (guru3d I suppose), came to the conclusion that I can probably just use Windows uninstall for the process. Everything worked fine, even though I'm connected to the internet when I'm apparently not supposed to be, but then I realized I might've missed a few things when selecting Express installation instead of Custom for my NVIDIA driver so I repeated the process again. This time, after the initial uninstallation, Windows automatically reinstalled the driver so I uninstalled it again before rebooting and that's when issues popped up. Icons on my screen stayed large (it usually resets back to what it was before, small in this case, as it did in my first reinstallation) and, more importantly, the Display Adapter dropdown is no longer visible. NVIDIA installer now gives me an error and I also can't install Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, the latter of which replaced the uninstalled driver in my first reinstallation. System restore didn't work because drive C: needs repaired so I tried rebooting my laptop in Safe Mode, which apparently was how my computer finally decided to actually fix drive C: but also deleting the restore point I've made before this whole process. I couldn't even enter Safe Mode (through Shift - Restart)! My computer just wouldn't do it and would boot back into normal mode. Most of the fixes I've found suggests I do something involving selecting my driver from the Display Adapters dropdown which is not available to me so I'm pretty stumped. Any help would be appreciated! If I haven't send my computer to a repair center by then that is...

EDIT: I forgot to mention that there's this Unknown device that shows ROOT/DISPLAY/0000 and I suspect that it might have something to do with the current predicament.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

did you ever actually run DDU in Windows' Safe Mode?

it's possible that Windows is just bugged due to some device detection issue.
what happens when attempting to revert to a previous Restore Point from before this issue arose?

if nothing else works you may need to perform a fresh OS install.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

If you can’t boot into safe mode then you’re going to have to clean install windows create a bootable USB boot on it format the hard drive and reinstall if that doesn’t work your hardware has failed

 

[Ralston18]

I will add the following suggestions:

1) Try manually downloading the applicable drivers directly from the manufacturer's website. Reinstall and reconfigure. No third party installers.

2) Look in Reliability History, Event Viewer, and Update History for any error codes, warnings, or related informational events being captured.

3) Run the built in Windows troubleshooters. The troubleshooters may find and fix something.

4) Run "sfc /scannow" and "dism"

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

How to use DISM command tool to repair Windows 10 image | Windows Central

No harm in trying.

But do be sure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations off of the laptops. Verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

 

[Blackink]

Maybe a previous restore point is available from when you did the install of the drivers?!?

 

[InvalidError]

You wouldn't have any video output if Windows' generic VGA adapters failed to load.

The message about your boot drive needing repairs after messing with GPU drivers might be a sign that something went horribly wrong and stuff got corrupted. What I'd likely do in such a case is first run memtest86+ or equivalent to check for flaky memory as a possible cause of the corruption. If RAM checks out, then I'd get a new/spare SSD, re-install Windows there and see if the hardware issues go away. If everything is fine now, the last thing left to do would be migrate all of your data from the old SSD to the new one before calling it done.

 

[oopsibrokemypc]

did you ever actually run DDU in Windows' Safe Mode?

it's possible that Windows is just bugged due to some device detection issue.
what happens when attempting to revert to a previous Restore Point from before this issue arose?

if nothing else works you may need to perform a fresh OS install.

Maybe a previous restore point is available from when you did the install of the drivers?!?

I didn't try DDU because, from what I've gathered from the website, the standard installation would suffice and DDU can be used it that fails. I've tried reverting to the restore point I've made right before trying to reinstall the driver but couldn't do so because my C: drive apparently needed repairs which was fixed by attempting to boot into safe mode but that also deleted the restore points I've made (I made 2 just in case).

 

[oopsibrokemypc]

I will add the following suggestions:

1) Try manually downloading the applicable drivers directly from the manufacturer's website. Reinstall and reconfigure. No third party installers.

2) Look in Reliability History, Event Viewer, and Update History for any error codes, warnings, or related informational events being captured.

3) Run the built in Windows troubleshooters. The troubleshooters may find and fix something.

4) Run "sfc /scannow" and "dism"

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-use-sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-system-files-2626161

How to use DISM command tool to repair Windows 10 image | Windows Central

No harm in trying.

But do be sure that all important data is backed up at least 2 x to locations off of the laptops. Verify that the backups are recoverable and readable.

1. That's the whole point of the thread. I couldn't install the drivers using the appropriate NVIDIA drivers installer let alone just reinstalling MS Basic Display Adapter. Are you suggesting I download the files that the installer would've given me and add that in my device manager instead?

2. Haven't done that. Not entirely sure how to do so.

3. Troubleshooter didn't do anything. I even tried Hardware and Devices troubleshooter which wasn't available through control panel and had to be inputted manually in cmd (msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic). It did lead me to another driver that needed and update and that driver was still outdated and needed updating after I've tried to update it.

4. Tried both and, though it apparently fixed some things, this issue still persists. I haven't checked the logs though and only ran 1 of the 2 DISM commands (if there's 2 at all) I've found on my research).

 

[oopsibrokemypc]

You wouldn't have any video output if Windows' generic VGA adapters failed to load.

The message about your boot drive needing repairs after messing with GPU drivers might be a sign that something went horribly wrong and stuff got corrupted. What I'd likely do in such a case is first run memtest86+ or equivalent to check for flaky memory as a possible cause of the corruption. If RAM checks out, then I'd get a new/spare SSD, re-install Windows there and see if the hardware issues go away. If everything is fine now, the last thing left to do would be migrate all of your data from the old SSD to the new one before calling it done.

Apparently the computer couldn't even detect the NVIDIA gpu inside the laptop. I'll need a flash drive, which I unfortunately don't have, to try out memtest86+ but I'll hopefully figure out a way to try it. I've tried sending it to my local, official Acer Service Center and apparently the problem was with the battery(?) and that they needed to replace it to do some kind of updates, question mark. I'll try backing up my data and Reset My PC and if it still fails I'm throwing in the towel.

 

[Ralston18]

@ oopsibrokemypc

Make and model laptop?

Reading and looking back I do not see "Display adapters" listed in Device Manager.

In Device Manager ensure that under the View tab that "Show hidden devices" is selected.

= = = =

Download and install the drivers manually via the laptop's manufacturer's website or Nvidia's website. No installers, third party tools etc..

"2. Haven't done that. Not entirely sure how to do so. "

In the "Type here to search" box (usually in the lower left screen corner) type Reliability History or Event Viewer. Run as admin.

Start with Reliability History - much more user friendly. Presents a timeline format that may reveal when the problems began. Either tool allows you to click for more information or details. That information may or may not be helpful.