Question Install Windows with Faulty Graphics

[Tarelus]

Hi Folks - Got a bit of a conundrum that has me stumped. I have an old Dell laptop that has windows 10 on. Works well and only use it for very basic tasks, but it has one problem.
It has an Intel and Radeon graphics setup, but the Radeon seems to have packed up - not a problem as the laptop works fine and don't need the extra "oomph" from the Radeon (although as its old its more of a "phhh")
But the problem is any attempt to update to a new windows 10 version stops and crashes when it tries to put on the graphics driver during update. Tried disabling Radeon in system, uninstalling drivers etc. But you can tell when it gets to the driver part of the install and see's the Radeon as the screen flickers and freezes and then fails and rollback to preupdate. Cant see anything in bios to disable the Radeon.
I dare not do a clean install as not sure I would ever get past the crash part.
Is my poor old Dell stuck in a moebius loop of no updates - or has anyone got a suggestion.
Cheers as always

Tarelus

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Might want to mention the model and SKU to your Dell laptop. I'd try and reinstall the OS but after reading this;
I dare not do a clean install as not sure I would ever get past the crash part.
I think it's best that you leave things alone.

If I were you, I'd try and make sure that the laptop's BIOS is up to date, then make sure that the discrete GPU you sepeak isn't conked out by using GPU-Z and see if they both show up. Often times hybrid GPU's need one driver instaleled prior to the otehr to get to operate optimally. I'd try with DDU to remove all GPU drivers, then manually reinstall with drivers showing up on Dell's support site(using the laptop's service tag on support portal) and then see if the GPU's come back to life. Once the GPU's are brought up to speed and the updates don't take hold, it's very likely that your OS is corrupt.

Sadly I'm not you, and the above might result in your laptop being inoperable. If you don't have a system to fall back to if this one fails, then I'd leave it alone.

 

[Tarelus]

Thanks Lutfij - bit late in thanking you, but much appreciated.
Have just today got it to work.
Windows keeps asking to install the latest version, but fails during install and roll back.
So I waited for it to ask to install it; disconnected web; went into safe mode and ran Display Driver Uninstaller to remove any Radeon stuff lurking; restarted and made sure the second GPU was disabled (labelled as Microsoft Display adapter) then applied update (still offline) and hey presto it complete this time without trying to update the broken Radeon (still listed it as Microsoft display adapter which I then disabled again)

So perhaps being offline during the install part seemed to have done the trick.... I think!

I am sure I tried this way once in my many attempts, but it worked this time!!!!
Cheers