[SOLVED] GPU refuses to work when drivers are installed

[xtianthrow]

Before this problem, everything was fine. I'm on the latest AMD driver for Windows 8.1 which is 17.7.1. While playing a game, my screen suddenly turned completely gray. After a physical restart, the system tries to boot but always gets stuck on the black screen after the Windows Logo, right before the "Welcome" screen making the desktop inaccessible.

I tried going to safe mode and uninstalling all amd drivers. I was able to boot to normal mode again. However, when I try to reinstall graphics drivers, the system crashes (music stops, becomes unresponsive to commands, and Hard Disk LED indicator stops flashing) and gets stuck on a black screen halfway through the installation, forcing me to do physical restart, which renders the installation unfinished.

To sum up, I can't get into desktop when I have amd drivers installed. I can get into desktop when there are no drivers installed, but that means that I will not be able to do anything graphic-wise. I tried installing latest and older driver versions but its all the same.

I checked under the hood and the GPU fans are still spinning, the display is still alright no weird artifacts or dead pixels, it just simply refuses to work when drivers are installed.

GPU-Z even recognizes the card, although it shows up as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter
https://imgur.com/9UZxNSZ

I'm on Windows 8.1, 64 bits and use a AMD radeon HD 7850 GPU, b75 motherboard, 500 watt psu.


Is my GPU dead?

 

[RobCrezz]

Yeah more often than not, thats a sign of a dieing GPU.

 

[Rexer]

You may not have gotten the old drivers completely out of your computer. Did the new AMD drivers do the uninstall/install? With your AMD driver uninstalled, run the AMD cleanup utility. It will clean up anything left behind in the registry path by your old drivers.

Get it here.
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601

Let it run and install the new AMD driver.

Next, clean, fix and straighten out Windows. Crashing really jacks around Windows. This will take a little time.
Go to Computer> right click the Local Disk C: drive icon and go to the bottom of the window to Properties> click the disk clean up box and let it run> when finish click the 'tools' tab and run the Error checker (Check) then the defragmentation tool. This whole thing's gonna take a while.

Next, 'reset' or set to 'default' in your games. Sometimes games remember a crash like a game setting. While you're playing, the right criteria for a crash is met and 'Wham' it triggers. Sends it into Windows and it black screens or crashes outright. 'Reset' or 'Default' erases the crash. Remember to write down your settings as they will be gone.
Hope this helps.

 

[Rexer]

Yeah more often than not, thats a sign of a dieing GPU.

Guess he's resolved to move on. It would've been nice to know how he fixed this. I still use an HD 7850 in my bench machine. It's been such a blessing.